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Amy and Lan

The enchanting novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Outcast

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'This is the story of how we came to Frith. And we're never, ever, ever leaving.'

Amy Connell and Lan Honey are having the best childhood, growing up on a West Country farm - three families, a couple of lodgers, goats, dogs and an orphaned calf called Gabriella Christmas.
The parents are best friends too. Originally from the city, they're learning about farming: growing their own vegetables, milking the goats, slaughtering chickens and scything the hay -

'Mind your eyes! Don't break your neck! Careful!'

The adults are far too busy to keep an eye on Amy and Lan, and Amy and Lan would never tell them about climbing on the high barn roof, or what happened with the axe that time, any more than their parents would tell them the things they get up to - adult things, like betrayal - that threaten to bring the whole fragile idyll tumbling down.

© Sadie Jones 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Animals Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural

Critic reviews

I adore Sadie Jones' writing... [Amy and Lan is] funny, moving, and really goes to the heart of why trying to change for the better isn't as simple as it sounds (Elizabeth Day, *Day's Delights*)
Jones's fictional landscape is jam-packed, abundant, and her smallholding as thick with intrigue as the Borgias' court... I don't think I've read another recent novel that better captures the pure sugar-rush of childhood; the sense of a life so exhilarating and ecstatic that it is almost too much to bear (Xan Brooks)
I couldn't put it down. Amy and Lan is a love letter to nature, to the seasons, to the ideal of simple living with all its human complications. It's a beautifully evoked story, full of empathy and hope (Esther Freud, author of I COULDN'T LOVE YOU MORE)
Achingly poignant... This is a novel of quiet beauty, vividly evoking the magnitude of childhood loss and the capacity for hope (Stephanie Merritt)
A bright, bittersweet novel
I loved Amy and 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)
Alive with the wonders of seasonal changes and the thrum of farm life, Amy and Lan will make you cry. Complex, beautifully written and true. I loved this book (Monique Roffey, author of THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH)
Compelling... [Jones] doesn't disappoint with this intermittently joyous but affecting portrait of childhood
Jones brilliantly ventriloquises Amy and her best friend Lan... She conveys their passionate attachment to the freedom of their unconventional upbringing and deep connection to nature
Sadie Jones is a consummate novelist of the modern family, in all its mess, cruelties, loyalties, treacheries and tragedies. This child's eye perspective on the 21st century attempt at the Good Life is topical, comical and horrifying. I read it heart in mouth (Amanda Craig, author of THE GOLDEN RULE)
All stars
Most relevant
Funny, enchanting, evocative and beautifully read by the two actors. I can an't recommend it enough!

best thing I've read in ages

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Absolutely loved it, I feel in love with Frith farm, I didn't want it to end, what will I do now?! I feel a little lost and it'll take a special book to compete with this one 💔❤️ Definitely reading more of Sadie Jones

Heartbroken it's over

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