Book Review: The Farm
The Farm is an unusual mix of thrills and Scandinavian folklore. But I wouldn't like to bucket the story as your typical thriller. Yes, you have the unforeseeable twists and turns much like any murder mystery, yet what makes The Farm so different and hypnotic is its setting. Author Tom Rob Smith beautifully evokes the picturesque landscapes of rural Sweden in all its ominous isolatedness to create a distinctive psychological drama that's very much dark and unsettling, eventually blurring the lines of reality and fantasy.
The Farm is also a story within a story within a story. It's like peeling an onion, venturing deep layer after layer, tearing apart the human façades of lies and secrets to unravel the mystery within. Daniel resides in London with his gay partner Mark, and his parents, Chris and Tilde, have retired to a remote farm in Sweden, the homeland his mother left years back when she was sixteen. His career hasn't taken off the way he expected and fearing a backlash from his parents about his sexuality, he tries as much to avoid making a trip to meet them, resorting instead with vague promises and occasional emails.
With a belief that they are happy and contended in their retirement, Daniel thus goes about his life until he gets a phone call from his father telling him about his mother's illness. About how she has been not quite herself, acting strangely and accusing him and their neighbour of being part of a heinous crime, and that she has been admitted to a hospital where she was being taken care of. Daniel is beyond shocked of course.
Not wanting to financially burden Mark, he empties whatever money is left in his bank account to book a flight to Sweden. But before anything could materialize, his mother calls him up to say that she is perfectly all right and that she is on her way to London to meet him, to tell him the story of what exactly happened. His father, on one hand, insists that she is imagining things, while she asks him not to trust his own father, adding she has evidence that proves he was in cahoots with their neighbour Hakan. Bewildered, confused and unsure of whom to believe, Daniel realizes the unenviable position he is in, and that just like him, his parents may not have been entirely truthful about their relationship.
Inspired by his own mother's psychotic experience in real life, Tom Rob Smith spins a compelling tale, immersing the reader in a pitch-perfect narrative that's atmospheric and deeply psychological. In an interview with The Telegraph, he says, "You wouldn't think someone with psychosis could be… meta-rhetorical. And she was, she was analysing everything she said and seeing how it would come across. And I just thought, well, someone who is psychotic can’t be this self-aware. But the whole point is that psychosis makes you hyper-self-aware. The thing that really took me by surprise was how little I knew about mental health."
Creative, layered and exquisitely written, The Farm is both gripping and disturbing, and the equally vivid characterizations will stay in your mind long after you have read the book. I just wish the relationship between Daniel and Mark was better explored, although it's a minor nitpick considering that the focus of the story was elsewhere. But make no mistake, here's a very fine 'thriller', one that shouldn't be missed for no reason. I can't recommend this enough!
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| The Farm |
With a belief that they are happy and contended in their retirement, Daniel thus goes about his life until he gets a phone call from his father telling him about his mother's illness. About how she has been not quite herself, acting strangely and accusing him and their neighbour of being part of a heinous crime, and that she has been admitted to a hospital where she was being taken care of. Daniel is beyond shocked of course.
Not wanting to financially burden Mark, he empties whatever money is left in his bank account to book a flight to Sweden. But before anything could materialize, his mother calls him up to say that she is perfectly all right and that she is on her way to London to meet him, to tell him the story of what exactly happened. His father, on one hand, insists that she is imagining things, while she asks him not to trust his own father, adding she has evidence that proves he was in cahoots with their neighbour Hakan. Bewildered, confused and unsure of whom to believe, Daniel realizes the unenviable position he is in, and that just like him, his parents may not have been entirely truthful about their relationship.
Inspired by his own mother's psychotic experience in real life, Tom Rob Smith spins a compelling tale, immersing the reader in a pitch-perfect narrative that's atmospheric and deeply psychological. In an interview with The Telegraph, he says, "You wouldn't think someone with psychosis could be… meta-rhetorical. And she was, she was analysing everything she said and seeing how it would come across. And I just thought, well, someone who is psychotic can’t be this self-aware. But the whole point is that psychosis makes you hyper-self-aware. The thing that really took me by surprise was how little I knew about mental health."
Creative, layered and exquisitely written, The Farm is both gripping and disturbing, and the equally vivid characterizations will stay in your mind long after you have read the book. I just wish the relationship between Daniel and Mark was better explored, although it's a minor nitpick considering that the focus of the story was elsewhere. But make no mistake, here's a very fine 'thriller', one that shouldn't be missed for no reason. I can't recommend this enough!
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