My favorite film of 2025 was Hamnet, which featured an Oscar-winning performance from Jessie Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare and Paul Mescal’s outstanding portrayal of William Shakespeare. It also happened to be an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. 

Now, O’Farrell has written another book featuring familial bonds set in Ireland before and after the Great Hunger. LAND has been called a story of survival, but I see it as a tale of faith, family strife and, above all, memory. It depicts the decades-long struggle of a cartographer and his loved ones, who both grow and struggle alongside him in a history that stems from the great Ordnance Survey project he takes on for the Redcoats in 1865, which nearly costs them everything.

"Maggie O’Farrell is a wondrous storyteller. Her words bristle with life, allowing readers to become fully absorbed in the reality she has created and the brilliant characters who inhabit it."

Gaelic is interspersed throughout the novel, and the first word we are introduced to is seanchaí, historians or custodians of tradition. LAND is full of tradition, and its custodians are Tomás and his 10-year-old son, Liam, who assists him. Their plight is interrupted by a creature in the woods, covered in moss and vines, that they watch being restrained. This is a harbinger of wild things to come.

Tomás' increasingly strange behavior is so concerning that a priest comes to conduct an exorcism, which is witnessed by Liam, who just wants his father back. Once freed, Tomás returns to his family and announces that they are moving into the woods to live in a cottage he has leased so they can escape from the outside world, which is just at the onset of the Great Hunger.

Millennia apart, we find a young girl named Brith, who is hunting with a large wolfhound. The time periods seem to fold over each other as that very same dog is with Liam. These woods and the land on which Tomás has settled his family is full of magic and ancient tradition. But their time together will be short as they will be separated not long after they welcome the latest addition to their clan.

Subsequent chapters show a significant passage of time where Liam leaves to become a priest and teach in India. Meanwhile, his sister, Enda, longs to be a musician, which is not typical for a young woman of this era. She takes Liam’s old cap and jacket and, posing as a boy, sets off with her fiddle in search of a place where she and her music will be appreciated.

Tragedy will strike, as it does in nearly every lengthy family saga. However, I will not divulge those details here, or explain how the rest of Tomás’ life plays out. One of the last thoughts that Liam and Enda leave us with has to do with a bit of woodland magic in the form of a gruagach, a creature that in later years would be referred to as a brownie or woodland fairy. The family provides offerings to this being, hoping for something in return. Towards the end of the book, we realize that all they needed was one another and the piece of land that was a part of each of them. 

Maggie O’Farrell is a wondrous storyteller. Her words bristle with life, allowing readers to become fully absorbed in the reality she has created and the brilliant characters who inhabit it.