Welcome back to my Neo-Victorian Voices series in which I write about novels set in the nineteenth century but written in the twenty-first. Today I’m reviewing one of the most talked-about historical novels of 2026, Maggie O’Farrell’s Land.
Land begins in Ireland around a decade after the Great Famine. Tomás is working as a mapmaker for the British, documenting the countryside and Anglicizing place names, assisted by his son, Liam. Then, in one of the most atmospheric openings I’ve read this year, the pair stumbles upon an unmapped copse, changing the trajectory of their family’s lives.
The novel starts with Tomás, his wife Phina, and their children, but then becomes a widening gyroscope, taking in centuries of Irish history and expanding its geographic focus to include both India and the New World. I loved the sections transporting us back into Ireland’s distant history, the awareness of the past O’Farrell imbues into both her animal and human characters, and how she uses Liam’s story to explore the mixed impact of Catholicism on Ireland through a very human lens.
The relationships between the family members were also well wrought and O’Farrell’s renderings of children’s perspectives are particularly effective. The shifts in how the siblings relate to their parents and each other throughout the novel felt realistically dysfunctional and achingly human. And, while at times the bleakness was a little unrelenting, I was invested in all the main characters’ fates.
Perhaps because I saw this as such a great ensemble piece, the sections of the novel that worked less well for me were when members of the family were alone and far away—Liam’s time in India with the Jesuits and Enda’s emigration story, that takes her to Quebec, felt like they belonged in different novels. Ultimately, while there was much to love in Land, I’m not sure O’Farrell fully convinced me that connection to the land of Ireland crosses oceans.
Which novel should I review next as part of my Neo-Victorian Voices series? Let me know here, on Instagram, on Facebook, or by tweeting @SVictorianist. Want monthly updates about my blog and writing delivered directly to your inbox? Sign up for my email newsletter here.
