What happened to those who remained in Ireland after the Great Famine of 1865? It’s a question that fascinated Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet, as she began her newest novel Land. Drawing on fragments of Irish history from her great-great-grandfather, O’Farrell’s Land is about… land, but it’s also about the myths, stories, and spirits that persist across generations. In today’s episode, O’Farrell joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation about Land, and why — despite geographic and societal upheaval — she believes that “human hearts and human minds change that much at all.”

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