The Farm

When Daniel’s father calls from Sweden to tell him his mother has been committed to a psychiatric hospital, Daniel tells his father, “I’ll book a flight for the morning.” But by morning, his father has already called back. “Daniel, she’s not here!” Daniel’s mother has checked herself out of the hospital and it isn’t long before she calls Daniel and tells him, “I’m sure your father has spoken to you. Everything that man has told you is a lie. I’m not mad. I don’t need a doctor. I need the police. I’m about to board a flight to London. Meet me at Heathrow…”Tom Rob Smith begins The Farm with a great story premise. It’s filled with mystery and suspense and puts Daniel in an intriguing dilemma - who is telling the truth?Tilde arrives in London carrying a beat-up satchel, stuffed with chronological evidence implicating her husband, Chris, and others in a violent crime. What follows is a marathon tale of what was supposed to have been a happy retirement on a farm in Tilde’s native Sweden. It’s a race against time because Chris is on his way and will almost certainly commit her to a hospital in London.The momentum builds, as Smith introduces many mysterious characters with questionable motives. He blurs the lines by adding images of giant elk, fairy tale trolls, Swedish customs and harsh winters. Tilde’s rambling account of events on the farm at times seems plausible, but at other times her story seems far-fetched, her observations more and more paranoid.I enjoyed reading The Farm because of this interesting storyline, however, its momentum met an abrupt and unsatisfying open-ended finish, with limited explanation. It’s a curious mix of a modern story frame, filled with folk tales, local lore and characters with nearly superhuman physical fitness. Tilde swims out into a chilly river, rows boats, hauls wheelbarrows, paints barns, runs, and rides her bike everywhere, often in the middle of the night.Overall, however, I found The Farm entertaining, despite its ending and can picture this as a movie. It will be interesting to see what kind of story Smith publishes next.

This is a difficult book to review because, to do it justice, I’d have to reveal much of the plot and I don’t like to do that. However, the publicity “blurb” for the book gives full breadth to the conditions and circumstances which frame the first twenty or so pages. Daniel’s mother, Tilde, has arrived in London from Sweden and wants the quiet privacy with her son to tell her compelling story of secrets, crimes and conspiracies that have driven her away from Chris, her husband and Daniel’s father, and their farm in Sweden. She has left a Swedish asylum of her own accord and hopes to gain Daniel’s confidence and support. Author Tom Rob Smith spends over 200 pages letting Tilde carefully and methodically tell her story: how she was ostracized by other Swedes even though Swedish is her native language, the tragedy of a young woman’s drowning, and the mysterious disappearance of Mia, the daughter of the town’s most powerful man named Hakan. Smith has spun a powerful and tension-filled web and, as you read of Tilde’s experiences, you’ll wonder how much is real and how much is fantasy. When she completes her story, Daniel convinces his mom to enter a London facility for mental care. Being the loving and dutiful son that he is, Daniel flies to Sweden to conduct his own investigation of Tilde’s theories and allegations. With little cooperation by the citizens around Chris and Tilde’s farm, he learns of his mother’s truths, her fantasies, and a horrible secret that comes as a total surprise. Ultimately this is a story about what can go wrong in a family and how it can be corrected by those who care enough to go the extra mile with devoted care.

My pleasure in this book was intensified by seeing the author in person. Smith's reputation was built on a well received trilogy of thrillers set in Russia, but this standalone novel had its genesis from personal experience. A fact I wouldn't have known if he hadn't shared it right off the bat at the book store visit. After his mother and father retired to a remote farm in Sweden, he received a call from his father alleging his mother had turned mad, become insane, and the next thing he knew, his mother was in London, accusing his father of crimes. Not knowing who to believe, he found himself in uncharted territory. His mother's illness raised the question of how well do we really know a person, inspiring him to examine it through writing this psychological page turner.Tilde in the book and his mother are two very different people with different histories, and the Tilde of his creation has had a far different history as much as Daniel, the narrator/protagonist, is far different from Tom Rob Smith. He had to set up a deceit for Daniel, providing him with a motivation for keeping secrets from his parents. One thing that I also remember his saying, it takes him about two years to write a book. His earlier trilogy required much research, and this one, much soul searching. It made me almost feel guilty for only taking a few days to read it, sometimes, reading a book in a day that someone has labored over for years.

This starts well. The author had a good idea for a basic scenario and premise. Unfortunately it suffers from DDS (disappointing dénouement syndrome). Also a lot of the characterisation is very weak. The key Swedish characters are cardboard cutouts. The father is very sketchy, too. The partner Mark, who has no known characteristics other than being sensible and generous, has no need to be in the book at all. (Presumably he is just there to provide something for the narrator to have lied about.) There is way too much detail in the mother's account. It's padded out in order to build up tension, but it's padding nonetheless. For example, no one says that they ate a "spice-filled bun", especially when the bun in question has already been defined as a cinnamon one. Later we apparently have to be specially informed of the sugar coating on another cinnamon bun. Was there no copy editor? Tom Rob Smith can do better.

Having read the Child 44 trilogy I looked forward to this very different tale. I was slightly disappointed, finding the characters unsympathetic, although the descriptions of the landcaspe and action taking place in Sweden were atmospheric. I did not find that I really cared whether the paranoia evident in the mother was really justified, a sure sign that I was not really engaging with the main theme. The fault was probably mine - I may have had expectations of becoming totally engrossed as I had with his previous novels. Also, it kept reminding me of an episode in a Swedish detective series I had seen some years ago which was slightly unnerving. It was not a comfortable read, but neither were the previous books I have read by Tom Rob Smith. If you are going to read one of his books try Child 44 first.

I read this in 2 days. It was recommended by a friend and I am grateful to her because I'm not sure I would have come across it before. It starts with Daniel, the son of a Swedish mother and an English father, receiving a phone call from his father who, along with Daniel's mum, has recently moved to a Swedish farm they have bought in which to live out their old age they are 67). Daniel's father tells him his mum has been making outlandish accusations and has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. As Daniel is preparing to fly to Sweden, his mum phones him to say she is coming to London. They hole up in his flat and his mum outlines her allegations, telling chronologically her and his father's lives since arriving in Sweden 4 months earlier, using "evidence" she has gathered in a leather satchel.It is intricately plotted and brings rural Sweden to life. As a reader, you never know if Tilde's (Daniel's mum) story is real or the product of a fevered mind. There is much drama and danger, whether real or imagined by Tilde. The ending is very satisfying. A brilliant read.

Recommend by a friend, I found this book so gripping and fantastically engaging I struggled to put it down and managed to read within four days; assisted greatly by the very clever absence of chapters. I am not familiar with previous works of this author and apologise if this is common place in his writing, but with each segment of the book broken down into only a handful of pages really helps to draw you in.Quite a simple concept you'll explore a 'who to believe' novel. As noted by other reviews I would agree that slow burner is a very appropriate description; you'll find no adrenaline pumping action, yet a gentle paced, descriptive, easy-to-follow thriller combined with a refreshingly compelling tale. Predominantly following Tilde's claims of a conspiracy, this intelligent novel leads to a less than convincing ending which doesn't quite seem to entirely fit in with the rest of narrative style. Nevertheless a great read to escape into and I find myself very intrigued to reading more works from this author.

A very strange book. The premise is great - Mark receives a phone call from his father who lives in Sweden with his mother, claiming that his mum has gone mad and needs to be sectioned. His mother, hours later - turns up in England with her own version of events.In all honesty, I found most of this extremely confusing and quite slow. I wasn’t gripped nor particularly interested and I found a lot of this simply hard work to get through.