It might be early in the season, but I’ve already read the best book of the summer – and I won’t gatekeep. Maggie O’Farrell requires little introduction, particularly following the Oscar-winning success of Hamnet. Based on O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name, the movie starred Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, who took home another Oscar for her heart wrenching performance.
Hamnet won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, among other awards, cementing O’Farrell as one of the UK’s best novelists. Alongside historical fiction, the author is known for her beloved – and ingenious – memoir I Am, I Am, I Am, which recounts her seven brushes with death. The Marriage Portrait and The Distance Between Us were similarly acclaimed, but her latest novel, Land, could well be her finest yet.