1 of 1
Story summary
- Maggie O’Farrell published *Land*, a novel set in the 1860s about Ordnance Survey mapmaker Tomás.
- Tomás disappears in a wood, returns changed, and realizes mapping reduces oral traditions to lines, functioning as colonisation.
- The novel cites one million deaths, two million emigrants (1845-1851), a 75% drop in sub-1-acre plots and an 80% rise in 15-30-acre farms.
- Tomás buys land beside the copse and vows to map its terrain and meanings.
