Welcome to an extremely delayed, was stuck in the drafts edition of what I read in June.

Maggie O’Farrell - Land:
I was reading Land in a cafe and a woman stopped by to ask me about the book and we chatted about how great Maggie O’Farrell is, and and then she stopped by again to ask me about I Am, I Am… (which was up next on my list). I love how much I enjoy meeting someone who likes Maggie O’Farrell’s work: for me, she is the single greatest discovery of the past few years. (Much thanks to Clara / @colormeloverly).

Early on while reading Land, I began thinking about how much I was reminded of Hamnet, and whether Paul Mescal could play any of the characters, but perhaps that’s because I saw the film recently enough. But this is a very different novel. Land is part magical realism and historical fiction, focused on the life of a mapmaker and his family in this peninsula. What does it mean to inhabit this piece of land, to work it, to derive beauty and meaning from it, to want to protect it? It’s beautifully told, but at times I did find myself wishing for a pause to understand more of each of the characters, about what exactly is driving them to want to devote themselves to this place, or to flee from it? The last quarter of the book, for example, rushes through a series of events that will radically change the lives of the characters, and yet we barely take a beat, a moment to grasp the enormity of any of it, and the land is almost forgotten as we move away from its beauty to the events that shape their lives.

But the beauty of Maggie O’Farrell’s writing is that the world she creates is completely overwhelming and detailed; and I found myself, expectedly enough, crying by the end of it. And perhaps Cillian Murphy would be great in the adaptation, actually. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death - Maggie O’Farrell:
I recently realised that I still have so much of Maggie O’Farrell’s backlist to read, and I reserved a bunch of books at the library. This arrived the same week that Land released. I Am, I Am, I Am, is a memoir; every story a heart in your mouth, unsettling experience. It is more plainly told than some of her other work; which perhaps makes it even more impactful.

Ghosts, by Dolly Alderton:

My friend Hira put me onto Dolly Alderton a while ago, when I was trying to read more contemporary work with a male narrator. She recommended Good Material, which is wonderful. (As is to be expected whenever Hira recommends anything, follow her on IG here.) At some point she had also mentioned Alderton’s Ghosts, which was clearly lodged into my brain because I saw it in a bookshop and thought: where have I heard that before? Ghosts is twist a knife into your heart good: bitingly funny and sad, a really sharply told story of contemporary dating and relationships; a story told in as much as the narrative as all the things the characters are leaving unsaid, that all come to a head, leaving the characters into jagged little pieces.

Annie Knows Everything by Rachel Wood:

A delightful workplace story! I could have read about 200 more pages of this.

Catherine Walsh’s How to Write a Love Story:

I am a sucker for a romance or romantic comedy set in Ireland, and I really like Walsh’s writing. This is a lovely story about a writer who has to finish her late father’s work, and an editor who has to get her back on track. Walsh writes tension really well, and this one is no exception.