Publishers Weekly
08/01/2022
Jones (The Outcast) offers a delightful story of life on an English farm co-op from the perspective of two children. Frith, the farm’s name, is a sanctuary from city life for three families, the Honeys, Connells, and Hodges, plus a divorcée named Em and Finbar, who is bipolar. At seven, in 2005, friends Amy Connell and Lan Honey deal with the dilemma of eating Virginia, the turkey that had been raised for Christmas dinner. Amy’s failed-actor father, Adam, emboldened by the growing popularity of his blog, Exit, Pursued by a Goat, starts pushing to open a bed and breakfast, despite resistance from the others. By 2008, Adam gets support from Lan’s witchy mother, Gail, for the B&B venture. Gail shares with Adam an aversion to the dirty farm work, such as butchering the animals—Gail would rather focus on making potions for various ailments—thus heralding an end to the others’ heretofore tranquility. An extramarital affair adds more tension to the farm, but in the eyes of the children, everything will turn out okay (“Dangerous things are always fine if you’re clever like we are, and cool like us,” narrates Lan). Jones does a solid job showing how Amy and Lan, despite their naivety, perceive the truth of the adults’ conflicts. This is great fun. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
A delightful story of life on an English farm coop from the perspective of two children….An extramarital affair adds more tension to the farm....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
“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 (playing with axes, climbing on roofs) and joint need for reassurance in the face of chaos and absurdity. 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
“[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
“Jones’ skillfully rendered, character-driven coming-of-age work is a bittersweet delight for fans of Beryl Bainbridge and Elizabeth Gill.” — Booklist
“Jones’ evocation of childhood is spot-on: its fierce passions, disaffections, loyalties, and suffering….Loss of innocence in its various forms is threaded throughout the novel, from the killing of a favorite turkey for Christmas to the intrusion of contradictory norms from ‘outside’ and, most painful of all, the betrayal of children by their protectors.”
— Financial Times
“[Amy and Lan] come of age playing unsupervised, feeling like the king and queen of an untouched utopia. But the real world encroaches on their idyll when long-buried fault lines shake the community, and Amy and Lan try to make sense of some very grown-up problems in their own childlike ways.” — Washington Post
“Things go south when entanglements between the adults start to draw their attention, and as Amy and Lan reach their early teenage years, these glimpses of grown-up life become an inescapable reality with devastating consequences. What at first reads as a deeply atmospheric bildungsroman, Amy and Lan quietly builds to a cautionary tale of the good life turned sour.” — Vogue Magazine "Best Books of 2022"
“Sadie Jones has written an emotional tale of how relationships go wrong, how they go right and the consequences of both. Don’t miss this powerful book.” — Book Reporter
“Sadie Jones is extraordinarily skilled at creating small worlds rife with hidden dramas… The years we are given with these unusual children are worth cherishing.” — Toronto Star
"Sadie Jones has written a beautiful, poignant novel . . . . Sadie Jones is a talented, successful novelist . . . . Amy and Lan demonstrates able mastery and understanding of the innermost thoughts of appealing, ordinary children. The leisurely pace may belie its power. Readers will be fully immersed in the world of Firth Farm." — Linda Hitchcock, Book Trib
Mary Pols
Vividly atmospheric…The novel races compulsively onward and becomes, in the end, a surprising and eerily beautiful portrait of compassion.
Ann Patchett
A brilliant novel…At once a shimmering comedy of manners and disturbing commentary on class…so well-written, so intricately plotted, that every page delivers some new astonishment.
Jonathan Coe on THE SNAKES
Gripping from the outset, then finally unputdownable. The writing is magnificent. One of the most powerful and uncompromising novels I've read in years.
Sarah Lyall
Provocative and propulsive...a novel about the corrosive effects of money and power and parenthood…Daring, beautifully written, atmospheric."
Malcolm Forbes
Jones’ portrayal of a dysfunctional family is as powerful as her depiction of provincial France...Electrifying.
Library Journal
07/08/2022
Amy Connell and Lan Honey have known each other all of their lives. They were born within days of each other to parents who lived together communally. Growing up the eldest children in a compound "family," they are best friends, more like siblings. Three couples have bought a 78-acre farm in rural England in an effort to return to nature, work the land, and raise their children together. Six other kids, and two additional adults, round out the family. Everyone shares in the childcare and chores. Beginning when they are seven, Amy and Lan alternate narrating their idyllic childhood. They love the animals on the farm and marvel at the intelligence and miracle of life. After Amy plays a particularly unkind prank on an adult, their minder tells them that they are the barometers of the compound. They see whatever is going on around the farm. They see more than the adults would like sometimes, although they do not always understand what they are seeing such as a mental breakdown and adultery. VERDICT Though difficult to follow at times, Jones's (Uninvited Guests) novel will be of interest to adults who enjoy coming-of-age stories told from the children's point of view.—Elizabeth Masterson
