The Farm is a lyrical and entertaining journey to the heart of rural life in New Zealand from one of our greatest living writers.

When Bruce Ansley visited a friend on a sheep farm on Banks Peninsula, they pointed out a property for sale, down by the water.

Down a drive curving through sycamores, oaks, and rhododendrons, there was a deer farm, with an old white Victorian homestead, overlooking soft green pastures beneath rocky crags - the Western Valley of Koukourarata, or Port Levy.

What followed were all the things one would expect to encounter when a couple from the city fulfills a lifelong dream to own a farm: joy, heartbreak, disaster; the vagaries of weather, animals, and people. All of it made up a way of life that will be recognisable to many who grew up in the country, and anyone who has it still lodged in their psyche.

'Bruce writes the way I wish everyone could tell a story - with wit, grace, wisdom and good timing. Reading him is like listening to a friend whose eye for detail, ear for a yarn and sense of fun remind you why you became friends in the first place. The Farm puts the heart into heartland and gives us townies a perfect glimpse of life on the other side of the fence.'

- Finlay Macdonald