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Product Description
Book Description
The powerful and richly evocative new novel from acclaimed prize-winning author Tim Pears.
Product Description
Brought up in the Anglo-Welsh borders by an affectionate but alcoholic and feckless mother, Owen Ithell's sense of self is rooted in his long, vivid visits to his grandparents' small farm in the hills.
As an adult he moves to an English city where he builds a new life, working as a gardener. He meets Mel, they have children. He believes he has found happiness - and love - of a sort.
But a tragic accident changes the course of his life and the lives of those he loves is changed forever. Owen is haunted by suicidal thoughts. In his despair, he resolves to reconnect with both his past and the natural world, and with his children he embarks on a long, fateful journey, walking to the Welsh borders of his childhood.
Powerful, richly evocative and perfectly poised between the hope of redemption and the threat of irrevocable tragedy, Landedis Tim Pears' most assured and beguiling novel to date.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A new novel by British author Tim Pears is always a welcome event. Landed follows the fortunes of Owen Ithell who as a young boy is sent by his feckless mother to live with his grand-parents on a farm in the Welsh Hills. This story of Owen's childhood is interleaved with a more recent account from Owen's life, for as an adult he has a terrible car accident in which his daughter is killed and Owen himself loses an arm.
We read of Owen's youth with his ancient grandfather, a man of few words, a man of the hills, who allows his grandson to follow him around and learn the skills of ferreting, shepherding and butchering, giving him a life-long desire to get back to the land and be self-sufficient.
After the accident, and back in his adult life, Owen tries his hardest to adapt to the loss of his child and his limb, but slowly things begin to fall apart, with joblessness and depression leading to legal separation from his family. On the way we read of the torment of "phantom limb pain" and the problems of prosthetic appliances, none of which quite do the job (Pears has done his research here!).
Pears breaks up this rather bleak text with various documents from Owen's progress. We see a police accident report describing the scene of the tragedy, complete with photographs. We see a transcript of a paper given to an occupational therapy forum on phantom limb pain, based on Owen's experience as a patient. We get to read a lengthy article Owen posts on an Internet fathers' right forum about the breakdown of his marriage. I quite enjoyed reading these. They break up the text but also fill out the picture of Owen and make readers feel more involved with his character.
The scene is now set for the second half of the book, in which Tim abducts his two younger children, Josh and Holly from school in Birmingham and begins a journey to the hillside in Wales where life was free of all the encumbrances of later life. I won't go beyond the content of the cover description and risk spoiling the story for others. I think I can safely say however, that it is at this point that the clues being to emerge to suggest that things are not quite what they seem.
Let me just say that the book makes perfect sense when taken as a whole. The knowledge you get at the end is revelatory, but should not perhaps have been totally unexpected. It even makes the whole book come together and for this reader at least made him feel that this had been a very satisfying read. This is a book which will linger in the memory, and if ever there was a book for book groups, then this is it - the possibilities for discussion are limitless, bringing in themes of childhood influences on adulthood, coping with loss, myth and reality, guilt and innocence and many more. A book to read and re-read I think and a fine addition to my Tim Pears collection.
We read of Owen's youth with his ancient grandfather, a man of few words, a man of the hills, who allows his grandson to follow him around and learn the skills of ferreting, shepherding and butchering, giving him a life-long desire to get back to the land and be self-sufficient.
After the accident, and back in his adult life, Owen tries his hardest to adapt to the loss of his child and his limb, but slowly things begin to fall apart, with joblessness and depression leading to legal separation from his family. On the way we read of the torment of "phantom limb pain" and the problems of prosthetic appliances, none of which quite do the job (Pears has done his research here!).
Pears breaks up this rather bleak text with various documents from Owen's progress. We see a police accident report describing the scene of the tragedy, complete with photographs. We see a transcript of a paper given to an occupational therapy forum on phantom limb pain, based on Owen's experience as a patient. We get to read a lengthy article Owen posts on an Internet fathers' right forum about the breakdown of his marriage. I quite enjoyed reading these. They break up the text but also fill out the picture of Owen and make readers feel more involved with his character.
The scene is now set for the second half of the book, in which Tim abducts his two younger children, Josh and Holly from school in Birmingham and begins a journey to the hillside in Wales where life was free of all the encumbrances of later life. I won't go beyond the content of the cover description and risk spoiling the story for others. I think I can safely say however, that it is at this point that the clues being to emerge to suggest that things are not quite what they seem.
Let me just say that the book makes perfect sense when taken as a whole. The knowledge you get at the end is revelatory, but should not perhaps have been totally unexpected. It even makes the whole book come together and for this reader at least made him feel that this had been a very satisfying read. This is a book which will linger in the memory, and if ever there was a book for book groups, then this is it - the possibilities for discussion are limitless, bringing in themes of childhood influences on adulthood, coping with loss, myth and reality, guilt and innocence and many more. A book to read and re-read I think and a fine addition to my Tim Pears collection.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Brilliant as for being in true touch with nature and hill farming as well as for a fascinating main character. Lots of extraordinary twists and turns.
If this was based on a real life where would truth turn into fiction/dreams/hallucinations? Like others I don't know the answers and no doubt will continue to wonder even when I read it again.
If this was based on a real life where would truth turn into fiction/dreams/hallucinations? Like others I don't know the answers and no doubt will continue to wonder even when I read it again.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read all of Tim Pears' previous books it's fair to say that I'm a fan but he really has created something truly unique and beautiful in `Landed'. Unlike some reviewers I felt it was perfectly clear what is going on in the second half of the book, especially when you arrive at the graceful and haunting final paragraphs. Deeply moving, artfully written - Tim Pears continues to reinvent himself with every story he creates. An unmitigated joy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
So beautiful, so bleak
The very moving account of how a freak car accident results in the destruction of a father's relationship with his wife and children, and ultimately in the loss of everything he... Read more
Published 21 months ago by R. Roberts
I've obviously missed something
I enjoyed the first part of this novel, and the writing is beautiful (hence the 3 stars), but either the story is more complicated or I am less intelligent than either of us seems,... Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2010 by F. M. M. Stott
One of the best books I have ever read!
I could not wait to read this book, if his other books are anything to go by (except for 'A Revolution of the Sun', which was thoroughly disappointing). Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2010 by MG
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