Thank you for the opportunity to read 'The Lie of the Land'. I enjoyed it very much, particularly the theme of moving from London to the country. The characters were well developed and as the mystery thickened, I found it difficult to put the book down.

Rating 4.5/5

When I first read the blurb of this book it obviously sparked an attraction, then because it had sat on the shelf for some considerable time (oops!) when I came back to it I couldn’t quite remember what the story was supposed to be about. I re-read the blurb and wasn’t sure on second reading if it was a book I was really going to enjoy.

I’m glad to say that I was able to prove myself wrong.

This is a great book!

The characters were brilliant, each endearing and flawed with some leaning more one way than the other. Throughout the book we get to hear from Quentin, Lottie, Xan, and Sally, I enjoyed getting to see from all the characters perspectives. It gave the story a lot more depth as you were able to see how the demise of a relationship affects all the different characters but also how it appears from people on the outside.

At the heart of this story is relationships, how they are built and broken and how that is overcome. It takes a look at what really makes a marriage and how the choices you make don’t just impact you, especially when part of a family. This is most visible in the relationship between Quentin and his father, who finds himself following in his father’s footsteps even though he despises his father for his past behaviour. As Ms. Craig put it at the event – it’s not just your own life you’re trashing it passes down to the next generation.

There is also a lot about the differences between the city and the country and the prejudices that people have over each. It was really interesting to hear that this was inspired by the author’s own move to the country and how she was faced with people coming to her door asking for jobs because times were so hard. There were points that the divide was maybe made a little extreme for dramatic value but overall it provided a fascinating backdrop to the story.

There is an element of mystery throughout the book and I have to say I had it half figured out fairly early on, but I think because the plot wasn’t resting on this one part of the story I didn’t feel that sting of disappointment, that I would if it were a crime or thriller novel. Instead, I enjoyed getting to see how the reveal was going to be set up and then, of course, the motivations behind what happened.

This isn’t a fast paced book, instead, it draws you in and the deeper you get into the story the more it picks up or maybe it’s just that by that point you are so engrossed that that’s what it feels like.

The Lie Of The Land is a book that surprised me, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I went through a range of emotions reading this book, from getting a bit misty eyed, to laughing, to being on the edge of my seat. I will definitely be going back to check out some of Amanda Craig’s previous books and will look forward to what comes in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley, the Publisher and the Author for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion.

I settled in to read this book, expecting a story of a family torn apart and thought, while not my usual type of book, why not? I am so happy I read this book, it was great! I loved the characters, they were so well written. Lottie, the no-nonsense wife, just trying to make the best of what they are left with, to Quentin, who was like a little boy, who doesn't see how his actions impact others; Lottie's son, Xan, was a charming young adult, with such a great spirit and nature. Quentin's father touched my heart, so gruff but with a soft side. The country-side was described lovely, and the factory and factory workers, felt so real and honest, in a village where the options are limited.

I enjoyed the story so much. It was not what I was expecting, but in so many ways, it was better.

Lottie and Quentin made me think about myself in many ways. I could hardly survive after my divorce, so I could identify with their pain and laughed at some places when I recognized my. Interesting read!

A year in the life - but what a year! On the face of it, the story of Quentin and Lottie as they, and their family, come to terms with their marriage breakdown and how to cope with their change in fortunes. Both out of a job and unable to afford a divorce, they rent out their London house and downsize to the Devon, not far from Quentin's aging parents.

The move proves to be less than idyllic for Quentin, who still likes to bask in his now fading if not absent glory as a columnist and is now reduced to writing scathing pieces about country life. Meanwhile Lottie draws on reserves of patience and resilience built up over the years of living with the arrogant and adulterous Quentin.

The children, as children do, adapt - even Xan - Lottie's mixed race son, who having failed to secure a place at Cambridge sulkily drifts along believing, nowhere else is worth considering. His move to the country, is a coming of age as he really has his eyes opened to the real world after living his rather gilded existence in London. As well as the family drama that ebbs and flows there is also a mystery - the murdered previous tenant of their new-found home. Why was he murdered and as the culprit is still at large, who did it?

It's an interesting and engaging plot that in its telling also serves to throw up a mirror to modern British society, it's extremes, it's contrasts and it's shortcomings. It shines a light on the darker side of the rural idyll with a reliance on immigrant workers, the realities of factory farming and the failings of zero hours contracts. A far cry for Lottie and Quentin from the London chattering class they've left behind (somewhat reluctantly in Quentin's case). Though it's not just the countryside under scrutiny, the universal problems of caring for an aging population, the challenges of the housing market (especially in London), infidelity and infertility are also covered. In general it cleverly highlights the town versus country debate as well as the prevailing political, social and economic divisions that in the past couple of years has been increasing bubbling up to the surface and look set to continue to do so.

While it starts slowly, it draws you in as you get to know the initial cast of characters and follow them on their journey, along with the wider circle of friends and neighbours that we meet on the way. It's a year that sees assumptions, beliefs, perceptions and relationships challenged in a way that none of them would have foreseen. It's very much a character driven plot with an ending that I doubt anyone saw coming. A thoroughly enjoyable read that I happily recommend.

At the start, I was sure this would be a book I wouldn't finish. Londoners complaining about moving to the countryside and an insufferable male (Quentin) tend to leave me annoyed. But Lie of the Land drew me in and I ended up really enjoying myself! Lotte is an endearing character and the addition of the mystery is a master stroke. It's Craig's sly humor that really made this book shine-I spent much of my time chuckling my way through this book.

Lottie and Quentin's marriage has broken down and they want to divorce, Problem is, they can't afford to. Their solution? To move from London to a remote cottage in Devon and live together there until they can sell their London home. An unexpected set up for a novel which examines many contemporary issues including property prices, Eastern European immigration, marital infidelity, low paid work, child neglect, sheep farming, infertility and much more, which I won't divulge - all set against the backdrop of a cottage with a secret and an eclectic array of characters. Lottie and Quentin's final solution to their marital problem is as surprising as the initial one. I enjoyed the ride!

I enjoyed this book centered around a couple who can't afford to divorce, Lottie and Quentin. It's funny in places but also serious and dark sometimes too.

I thought we would trundle along as they moved into the rural Devon from London due to lack of finances but behind it all is a good plot and storyline which all comes out in the end and kind of sneaks up on you!

Loved it and will read more from the author

Probably a 4.5 - interestingly drawn plot on a struggling London family moving to the country, but then getting involved with some of the local mysteries.

It took me a while to finish this book, but guess what.....once i get going there was no stopping. It really makes us think about the life we all live in and things which influence us. I love English countryside (it is less wild than US for sure), so i loved the story. Good book - absolutely your summer read :)

An interesting enough book about a move from London to the heart of Devon. A mid match of characters who actually weave together quite well. Part modern family fiction, part suspense, it's a bit far fetched but enjoyable nonetheless

I'm torn, I really enjoyed this author's voice and the subject matter, but I found this book to be far longer than it warranted. Also I found it tricky when it became a thriller/crime rather than an almost Dickensian society novel. Having said this, it's undeniable that Craig is a fantastic writer, perhaps just not for me.

This is an intelligently written, insightful, topical and satirical novel. The humour is fantastic. I particularly thought it was hilarious when Xan called his stepfather "dud." That will keep me smiling. Quentin and Lottie are having a marital meltdown because of his infidelity. They can't afford to divorce so they decide to stay together with their three children and have to leave their £1.2m London house (to sell) and downsize to a rented cottage in a Devonshire village where they vote for UKIP. It's a dilapidated cottage with a temperamental Rayburn and a mauve bathroom and a scary history. What a culture shock from bustling London to the quietness of the countryside. Xan, their son is a very interesting character who finds work in a pie factory. I was very interested in the ins and outs of zero hour contracts and the industrious Poles who are so undeservedly maligned by ignorant people in our society. These sub-themes proved thought provoking as well as the interaction and dynamics of relationships between the family members with stepfather issues and an unknown father in Xan's case. Loved it enormously. Thank you for letting me read it. I shall post this review on Amazon and into my blog.

This is a wide-ranging novel with n abundance of characters. Although it took me a while to work out who was who, and their relationships to each other, I did enjoy this novel.
The twists in the plot were stupendous, and I did not see any of them coming.I did love the twists and turns of each relationship and the way it all gelled at the end.
I would recommend this novel to my reading friends, and thank Net Galley for allowing me to read it.

Having read the advanced publicity for this book, I was quite surprised by what I actually ended up reading. It was far less of a suspenseful thriller than I had hoped for and more of a sardonic Aga-saga. The premise made no sense - a family who find themselves in financial crisis are forced to move to the West Country where the rent they receive for their multi-million pound London house only affords them a rat-infested rundown cottage, a loving mother who owns a vast London mansion but does not offer them a roof over their heads and two well-connected professionals who cannot find work in a big city but secure it in a tiny village. The basic plot of the novel is interesting but the resulting novel is populated by too many stereotypes and the plot twists come too late to be fully explored.

If you want to know what England is like right now, read this book.

It’s a very specific story, about a particular family with its own problems, it has a most un-metropolitan setting, and it has at its heart a very strange and gruesome crime. But it describes life in 2017 in the most hilarious, entertaining, wince-making, and real way.

A modern family is facing divorce and job loss: they move to Devon, to save money, and this is how the mother explains it to the children:


Lottie says, ‘Sweetheart, it’s like The Railway Children.' 
‘Is Daddy going to prison?’ 
If only, Lottie thinks. ‘No, we just don’t have much money for a bit. When we sell the house in London each of us will buy a really nice flat, I promise.’ 
‘Can’t you and Daddy not divorce?’ 
‘No, I’m sorry darling.’



They make the move and try to come terms with country life, after having been rich and very urban. They fight with each other, and try desperately to earn money. The children have the usual problems fitting in, and their mother is called in for a discussion in the headteacher’s office- all too recognizable as parents and children argue, the mothers trying to be reasonable…
…The boys’ mother, a tall and unexpectedly pretty woman in a turquoise raincoat and bright pink wellington boots.. ‘Dexter, Tiger, I’m ashamed of you guys. Say sorry right now.’
There is a strong plot involving a previous inhabitant of their rented house, the local rich guy, a reclusive rockstar, and other villagers that they meet along the way.

They go back to London for visits – ‘ a Britain that is more confident, more tolerant, more civilized, more enterprising and more beautiful than the rest of the country. Even when it drives him mad… [London] is, far more than any woman, the love of his life.’

The characters are complicated and real – Quentin is hideous and vile in many ways, and no-one could not enjoy his attempts to get jobs from his past employees:
Quentin: When I came to work for you as an intern I made your coffee, fetched your dry-cleaning, covered your back and even cleaned shit off your shoes. You didn’t pay me lunch money let alone a living wage, and never once said thank you. You are the rudest person I have ever worked with. So you will understand why I say now, We have no vacancies of any kind that you might fill.
And yet he is rounded, and subtly – through his interactions with his parents, as above – we find out why he might be like that. And although you have to look quite hard, he does have a few redeeming moments. No-one in the book (maybe one person…) is all good or all bad: this is one of Craig’s marvellous talents. She doesn’t tell you who to like and dislike.

More or less, each chapter changes viewpoint – we learn what is going on in the lives of a wide variety of characters. The chapters often end on a low-level cliffhanger – we move on to another person, who will, perhaps, be thinking during a journey. So we get more info about what they are doing, and then they will be thinking back to what has happened since we last saw them. Now, I am the first to complain about this kind of thing - - it often drives me mad in books, and I consider many authors to be rather cheeky in expecting us to keep up with this switching and varying timelines. But Craig is so good at it, I never once felt annoyed or confused, and it was an excellent way to tell the story and to keep our attention and interest.

Throughout there are wonderful apercus about life, about people. The long protracted illness of one character, and the fears and thoughts about death, are particularly well-done. Then there is this:
His love lacks the crucial ingredient of imaginative sympathy. If Sally had to put her finger on the single worst characteristic of everyone who has ever inflicted harm on others, it’s the inability to comprehend that other people fell pain, humiliation and loss just as intensively as you do yourself.
I had to read that over several times, it seemed so perfect and so accurate.

I love Amanda Craig (her book A Vicious Circle is on the blog here), and I think she is a great, great writer, maybe a genius.  While she has plenty of sensible fans like me, I do not understand why she does not get every literary prize going. Could it be because she is funny? Or even, because she is a woman? I am not Jonathan Frantzen’s biggest fan, but he is generally agreed to be a great chronicler of American life, a writer of huge stature and status. But he is not better than Amanda Craig, with her long series of novels presenting recent life. And she isn’t the only writer I feel is very undervalued – look at Lissa Evans, Patricia Ferguson, Marina Endicott, and half the women writers featured on this blog.

The sculptor is Bashka Paeff, from the Smithsonian’s collection of photographs of American artists. Naomi in the book is a potter rather than a sculptor, but the picture seemed right. I do love a smock: see this entry for Arnold Bennett and Calvin & Hobbes and their takes on smocks. And this Patricia Wentworth book featured artsy crafty smocks too - the second picture featured here,  of artist Bertha Wegmann from the Royal Library of Denmark, was first discovered for that entry. 

The wearer of the turquoise coat is Amal Alamuddin, who married George Clooney.

It wasn't just time issues that made me ditch this book. It's First World Problems as seen through the eyes of the least interesting and likeable characters in fiction. The first couple of chapters are all summary and no scene-as-seen, which any creative writing tutor would lynch you for. The rest (that I could be bothered with) is a mess of completely unfunny character-building and vapidness. If something is supposed to happen in the last few chapters, it can remain a mystery. As is the fact that copious people have thought this speaks to, or perhaps even FOR, them.

It really is a tenth-rate Burley Cross Postbox Theft.

A meandering tale of many layers, with mystery, mud and mice. Several themes are explored in this narrative of 21st century middle class problems - that of financial ties that bind, revenge, spoilt teenagers, lack of internet, and making the best of a bad situation. Quentin and Lottie Bredin are stuck. Stuck with their marriage, stuck with their London home and stuck with each other. They decide to "downsize" and move to a more rural home in Devon with their three children. What they find is a house to rent filled with historical emotion; an aura of the past that fills up the rooms of their new home. No one in the family is happy with the move.

The story is unique in its acknowledging of the financial ties that bind a couple and feed their misery until it is all consuming. An engaging tale with rich characters and a gripping story, Amanda Craig has given us a multi-layered surprisingly epic and sometimes humorous story and I highly recommend!

I loved this book. It has wonderfully developed characters. Quentin and Lottie are having to move to Devon because after their relationship breakdown they can’t afford to keep living in London. They’ve found a house with a suspiciously low rent- but they move lock, stock and barrel to Devon.
Their son finds a job in a pie factory after having led a previously entitled lifestyle and this allows us to meet several more local characters.
This book deals with the breakdown of a marriage, first love, cultural issues and a mystery surrounding the house. Quentin struggles when his wife starts to become more successful after his career has stalled for a while. He really can’t understand why they can’t revert to their former lifestyle.
It was a really interesting book and I will definitely look out for more by Amanda Craig.

This is a very profound book about relationships: family, friendship, spousal and sexual. Through the various characters it examines why the relationships endure and why they flounder. It displays mismatches of expectations and how they can lead to feelings of betrayal and, in at least one case, horrific consequences. All generations are represented
The book is centred around Quentin and Lottie, who have had to relocate to Devon from London following both losing their jobs and with their marriage in tatters, pending divorce. Quentin starts the book as an utterly obnoxious individual. He has cheated on Lottie on numerous occasions, as did his father before him cheat on his mother. But while he hates his father, and cannot understand why his mother remains with him after years of humiliation and betrayal, Quentin expects Lottie to accept his masculine entitlement to stray. He is entitled to other things too – driving as fast as he wants, wealth, his children in private schools with no underachievers to bring them down, London life with all it brings, useful business contacts, being in demand … until suddenly it has all gone. He and Lottie have to adapt to being poor in the country, and without the support of each other.
But their experience of being poor, bears little relation to the very real poverty of some of the people around them. Lottie’s mixed-race son, Xan, had been expecting to go to Oxbridge but didn’t get the required grades. He ends up working for minimum wage on a night-time zero hours contract at a local soul-destroying pie factory, where he meets the impoverished Maddie, the attractive Polish girl Katya, and makes further contact with the obese, lumpen, Dawn. Dawn accompanies her mother, the embittered Janet, when Janet cleans for Quentin (‘poor’, but has to have a cleaner!). She seems devoid of intelligence, but can play the piano beautifully, when no-one is watching. Xan is intrigued. Xan also encounters racism for the first time, is forced to understand why people who desperately need a job put up with sex-pests in the workplace, and some of the reasons why Brexit happened.
The book is full of strong female characters, and some males who learn to be strong. Other important characters include Lottie’s mother, a district nurse, a Macmillan nurse, a farmer and a very wealthy aging rock star, with a dissolute past. All the characters are very well drawn, and most evolve along with the story line, as they have to confront their shattered expectations, and learn to adapt, or even thrive.
And if all these social issues were not enough, there has been a recent unsolved murder in the house that Lottie and Quentin are renting.
The writing in the book is excellent – both in the portrayals of the characters and their feelings, and in the depiction of the Devonshire countryside, which the author clearly loves: “Even when clouds shed thunderous water, turning roads into swift brown rivers, the rain is warm, and the heated earth releases its pent-up scents. Then the mists rise and bleach everything to the sepia tones of an old photograph, and the hills vanish in a veil of cloud”.
The various storylines and relationships keep you engaged throughout, and the climax and ending are quite unexpected. Definitely worth a read.