Claire Nicholls

Something really surprising happens in part two of Land, Maggie.

We go back thousands of years to meet a girl called Brith.

Can you just explain, Maggie, the structure of Land?

I really liked this section.

You do move through history very quickly in this section and it reminded me of the part in Hamnet where we trace the journey of the plague across the ocean to the UK.

It's this very exciting piece of writing where a lot of time happens in quite a small number of pages.

It must be a really thrilling writing challenge for you.

For the most part of the novel, we are with this one family in the late 1800s.

So we've talked about the mapmaker, Thomas, his son, Liam.

We also have Thomas's beloved wife, Fina.

We've got the daughters, Enda and Rose.

We've got son, Eugene.

And there are so many big dramatic moments in this book.

Maggie O'Farrell, you know, we've got two children connecting in a workhouse.

We have an exorcism.

We have...

A dog that seems to know all.

There is so much that happens in land.

It's very sweeping.

It's very romantic.