Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2022
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
The author of the highly acclaimed, bestselling novel The Uninvited Guests returns with a captivating coming of age story told by Amy and Lan, two children whose journey from innocence to moving experience is shaped by their families' attempt at the pastoral dream on a farm, deep in the English countryside.
"The very first thing I remember is standing on the water-butt in the garden, with my Mum holding me to stop me falling, singing 'I'm On Top of the World,' and the smell of the new wood in the hot sun. And something do with Mum's silver necklace. Amy doesn't remember any of that. Her very first memory is our wolfhound Ivan knocking her over in a puddle. Or it might be eating a boiled egg, and looking at the daisies on her kitchen tablecloth."
Amy Connell and Lan Honey are having the best childhood ever. They live on a 78-acre farm in the South West of England, with sisters and brothers, other kids, chickens, goats, three dogs, and even a calf, called Gabriella Christmas.
"Honeys in the Farmhouse, Connells in the Cowhouse, Hodges in the Carthouse..."
The three sets of parents are best friends who came to Frith from the city, and are learning, year after year, how to farm the land.
Free and unsupervised, Amy and Lan play with axes and climb on haystacks, but there is grownup danger at Frith they don't see. It's Gail, Lan's mother, and Adam, Amy's father who should be more careful. They should learn what kids know: never to play with fire.
"Two children observe and embody the liberating yet risky social experiment of communal living on an English farm…Amy, the 'practical' one, and Lan, 'a dreamer,' have a near-seamless relationship built on their freedom...And then there are the grown-ups, who bicker and quarrel over practical issues and, inevitably, relationships…It's at Frith, an earthly Eden, where matters—and childhoods—must end. Change is gonna come in this poignant, low-key coming-of-age tale." - Kirkus Reviews
"[A] delightful story of life on an English farm co-op from the perspective of two children...Jones does a solid job showing how Amy and Lan, despite their naivety, perceive the truth of the adults' conflicts. This is great fun." - Publishers Weekly
"Jones' skillfully rendered, character-driven coming-of-age work is a bittersweet delight for fans of Beryl Bainbridge and Elizabeth Gill." - Booklist
"Though difficult to follow at times, Jones's novel will be of interest to adults who enjoy coming-of-age stories told from the children's point of view." - Library Journal
"[Sadie Jones's] achingly poignant sixth novel recounts the story of two youngsters whose friendship is pulled apart by the tensions of the adult world in a rural Eden…This is a novel of quiet beauty, vividly evoking the magnitude of childhood loss and the capacity for hope." - The Guardian (UK)
"Achingly poignant...This is a novel of quiet beauty, vividly evoking the magnitude of childhood loss and the capacity for hope." - The Observer (UK)
"I loved Amy & Lan: the way parents mess up their children's lives is heartbreaking yet beautifully conveyed. I've long been a Sadie Jones fan but this may be her best yet. Poignant, compelling and brilliant." - Mary Lawson, author of A Town Called Solace
This information about Amy & Lan was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo by Charles Hopkinson
Sadie Jones is the author of five novels, including The Outcast, winner of the Costa First Novel Award in Great Britain and a finalist for the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize/Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction; the enchanting, hard-hitting novel set on the island of Cyprus during the British occupation, Small Wars; her most successful, bestselling novel The Uninvited Guests, beloved of Ann Patchett and Jackie Winspear, among others; the romantic novel set in London's glamorous theatre world, Fallout; and the highly acclaimed, bestselling novel, The Snakes. Sadie Jones lives in London.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
