40 / matters magazine / fall 2026 If you want a firsthand lesson in Irish history without picking up a vo luminous dusty tome or relying on the typical cliché-ridden exaggerations featured in movies, put your trust in the skillful hands of this amazing Irish writer, Maggie O’Farrell. She creates well-crafted historical fiction that weaves significant events through eloquently defined plots and articulately etched character portraits. Land is a homecoming to a place that draws its inhabitants back repeatedly through the Great Hunger (The Irish Potato Famine) when millions perished and the population plummeted, driving the survivors overseas, penniless and crammed in poorly built ships, to shores of the Americas and elsewhere. The story takes us through the plight of the orphans incarcerated in workhouses, the colo nialism by the English and their efforts to wipe out the local culture, language, beliefs and traditions. Key to the plot is the mapping of Ireland according to the Ordnance Survey (the profession of the main character in this novel is a local mapmaker who acts as a liaison,) and the growing spirit of resistance by the underclass to reclaim their land as their own. After the blockbuster success of The Help more than 17 years ago, Kath ryn Stockett is back and how. At a whopping 650 pages, The Calamity Club is still a quick read, but I’d recommend the Kindle version, especially for someone with weak hands! Set in the Deep South in Oxford, Miss., right around the Great Depression, this woman-centric book, just like her ear lier one, has two principal narrators, Birdie and Meg. The plot goes back and forth between the two. But there are several other women involved – women desperate to find a way to live in a de cade when there were no jobs, prohibition had not been repealed and the options for women who were alone were almost non-existent. In such a hostile environment, the resil ience, ingenuity and strength of these struggling women is exemplary to read. Birdie, a plain “old maid” at 24 and Meg, an 11-year-old orphan, stand out for their never-give-up attitudes and survival instincts. There are other supporting characters who are driven by their own demons. While the protagonists devise ways to play cat and mouse, it is hard not to get affected by their plight. The book touches on several themes, including abandonment, baby traf ficking, alcoholism, depression, discrimination against women and minori ties, prohibition, prostitution, eugenics and forced sterilization (the last two were new to me and horrifying). All this in the Bible Belt, where self-pro claimed champions of Christianity decide the fate of those who do not fit their idea of “a good Christian,” including gays, “promiscuous” women and single mothers. If that seems like a lot to chew on, it is, but the author fits them all in naturally and perfectly in this heart-wrenching story. The characters are well-developed and you will feel deeply about them, one way or the other. Perhaps one could argue that toward the middle the plot meanders a little and could have been trimmed, but I felt no urge to This book packs a lot, looping asynchronously with the land as a palimp sest of texts, overwritten through the eyes of many invasions and unrests that came before. The locals’ beliefs in Gaelic folklore, myths and superstitions are in direct conflict with the colonizers’ efforts to erase and anglicize ancient names and places. This invites elements of magical realism in the narrative with little or non- existent dialogue, such that no emotion is overly dramatized or forced from the reader but gently coaxed and elicited . The story could potentially have no ending, just like Earth and life. Humans are but a blip in the annals of history, with the land bearing witness, unperturbed as they come and go, while it lets them trespass, claim temporary ownership and live their lives as visitors. Reading with Anu BY ANU MAHADEV bookmatters Land by Maggie O’Farrell Knopf Publishers, June 2026 The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett Spiegel & Grau, May 2026 A s we roll into fall, a season of renewal and change, I invite you to reflect upon the upheavals of the past that have brought about real, tangible change in our world. I was in Munich recently, admiring the gor geous Bavarian landscape and the intricate architec ture, when two things struck me. As romantic as it looks and sounds, no woman would want to go back to living in the medieval times. And the real measure of progress in a society is correlated to the rights wielded by its women, as has been quoted by many activists and revolutionaries. Rolling back several centuries of progress, championed by many pio neering women – two of whom we recently lost, Dolly Parton and Glo ria Steinem – sounds horrifying. Let’s think about the women who lived through those times, unnamed or famous, who wanted to be more than the roles they were restricted to and live life on their own terms. Each one of them was a catalyst in their own way, pushing the needle ever so slightly, qui etly resisting and redefining the norm. Because the truth is, no matter how technologically advanced society becomes, when half the population is not allowed to keep pace with change, there can be no real or complete progress. As the ancient Sanskrit text, Manu-smriti from 2 BCE says, “Where women are worshipped, divinity blossoms. Where they are dishonored, every action or ritual results in failure”.
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