Amy and Lan: The enchanting new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Outcast

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We begin in autumn 2005, when anticipation about who gets to light the annual bonfire fairly bursts from the pages. The uncompromising presentation of birth, life and death on the farm was handled excellently, I found Amy and Lan’s struggles with these facts of life very poignant and effective. Some of the recollections highlighted how wild and dangerous childhood can be, especially without the supervision of adults. So much of the story of Amy and Lan is like that: children and adults working and laughing and dancing in a world of their own.

It’s difficult to say if I had a favourite character, although Finbar was intriguing, but of course we didn’t get any background information because it was told through the eyes of the children.I finished ‘Amy and Lan’ wanting to know how they adapted/enjoyed/survived the next ten years of their lives. Themes of growing up and losing the innocence of childhood are woven into the story, along with the difficulties of friendships. Both families had left their city lives and rented a farm just before they were born, along with a third family and a couple of others.

The references to popular music helped to set the era and mood, it is easy to identify with particular songs evoking memories. Their encounters with the outside world tend to swerve hilariously sideways, exposing the chasm between the back-to-the-landers and almost everyone else. It is not to be read as a comment on the viability of communal living – there being at least as much good as bad in Frith. A story about the “real” Good Life through the eyes of Amy and Lan, and what initially apppears to be carefree childhood, where they are trying to understand changes in their lives, some as a consequence of life on a farm and the relationship with the animals and ‘town’ kids, and others as a consequence of the behaviour of the adults around them. In alternating chapters, the children introduce us to their bold and adventurous selves — Lan’s axe experiment has luckily missed Amy’s toes — and describe the weather (frequently damp and cold), moods and personalities of the adults in charge of their bit of paradise.

They have goats and chickens and grow their own hay; the children go to school but on the farm help out and roam free. Gifted by Vintage and the Reading Agency* Amy and Lan is both an amusing and tragic presentation of rural life in the mid-late 2000s. I absolutely adored this book, I loved that it was told from a child’s perspective, really gave it an edge.

It was slow to start and most of the parents seemed ill equipped for leaving city life and being self sufficient whereas the children loved the freedom and adventure that resulted from their parents lack of supervision and care. I adored Finpbar’s character, although had a small part in the book, he obviously was being cared or by the Frith Community, and the book portrayed traditional community support values, which took me back to the village I grew up in - everyone knew everybody, but also helped each other out.Lan says that Amy never thinks that her mum ’might just go off one day’, which is a hint at what his mum has already done and so might do again. I also felt the city outsiders that visited frith, disrespectful and ignorant of rural life, lacked depth and felt heavy-handed in their implementation. This was not helped by the alternate chapters by different narrators and the introduction of many characters.