Maggie O'Farrell Sets Irish Famine Novel 'Land' for June 2, 2026 Release

6 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 22

June 2, 2026 is the publication date for Land, Maggie O'Farrell's new novel about an Irish mapmaker working for the British army after the Great Famine.
O'Farrell said the book grew from discovering her great-great-grandfather helped revise Ordnance Survey maps in 1848, as famine deaths, evictions and emigration reshaped Ireland.
She called Land her most political novel, using one plot of land to examine colonisation, starvation and the redrawing of estates under British rule.
O'Farrell also said Charles Trevelyan's conduct during the famine was "upsetting and horrifying" and that she would like his knighthood rescinded.
The novel arrives after Hamnet's screen success—O'Farrell won a Bafta and Golden Globe for the adaptation—and Land has already been optioned, with O'Farrell planning to write the screenplay.

Will a novel's power lead Britain to revoke a controversial 178-year-old knighthood?

Can one mapmaker's story truly capture the devastation of Ireland's Great Famine?

Does a 19th-century famine story hold the key to understanding modern intolerance?