Many of my good reads friends were raving about this one by the time I was able to aquire it so I went into it with very high expectations. This is a fictional account of Shakespeare's son Hamnet who passed away from pestilence. I will admit that I was ready to give up several times throughout the first half of this book even though it was written very well it just felt flat for me. A little past the half way point the novel really came together and finished very strongly.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this drc available through netgalley even though the title is already released. Congratulations on the well earned Women's prize and my regrets it didn't make the Booker. I thought it was better overall than a few that made the short list.

This book tells the story of Anne Hathaway (Called Agnes here), wife of Shakespeare, as she courts, marries, and survives the death of her young son. I loved the choice to make her a witchy wise woman, and the story of both of her birthing experiences were riveting and emotional. She makes sense out of facts about their shared story that have long puzzled me. Why would a man live away from his family like that? Why would a man write a play about his dead son radically different from his actual life? How did Anne carry on? She presents plausible, deeply felt possible answers to all of these question.

What a wonderful example of historical fiction at its best! Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell was my first book read by this author. I have heard wonderful things before but had not read one. Now she will become a "must read" author! If you enjoy literature set in and about WIlliam Shakespeare, this is the book for you! The story investigates some of the tragedies of Shakespeare's time and certain influence upon his writing. Thank you to Netgalley for this free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell is a rich, dark novel about the Black Death, true, but as its title suggests, it is also about William Shakespeare. More precisely, it tells the story of Shakespeare’s free-spirited and intelligent wife, Anne Hathaway, here called Agnes, and his children, Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith. O’Farrell vividly evokes marriage and motherhood in Elizabethan England, all the while spinning a subtext to Shakespeare’s famous play, “Hamlet.” A national bestseller in the UK and winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Hamnet is charged by its originality and its emotional depth.

This books is so beautifully written that I didn't want it to end. It is lyrical. It explores the marriage of William and Agnes (Anne) and the grief of the loss of their son Hamet. This is a book that will stay in your thoughts for a long time. You get a true sense of rural life in Stratford , the beekeeping, the gardens, and how each of the main characters handle their grief.

Who, me? Reading another pandemic novel?

I almost wrote this book off as too Shakespearean for me; There's no way I'll understand it, I scoffed. And so, for the duration of its press buzz and publication, I continued to ignore Maggie O'Farrell's newest novel, even though I adored her 2017 memoir I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death. With a road trip on the horizon, a convincing spiel from the New York Times Book Review podcast, and my Shakespeare-loving partner in tow, I decided to purchase the audiobook from Libro.Fm. If lengthy English sonnets got in the way of my listening, I could easily turn to the Shakespeare expert in the passenger seat.

O'Farrell has honed both her craft and her obsession with the Bard to weave this incredible story of fact and fiction. While we think of the English playwright when we hear the name Hamnet/Hamlet, he remains on the periphery of this novel; taking center stage are the women and children in his life. In fact, we never once read his name on the page; it is only through context (read: book flaps) that we know this information.

While her husband is away in London, Agnes/Anne discovers that their twins, Hamnet and Judith, have fallen ill with a fever, bubos: the Plague. This book, then, transfers us between the children's ailments, the beginning of the couple's hastily arranged marriage, and the debut of Shakespeare's famous, aptly named tragedy.

TL;DR you do not need to enjoy, study, or have knowledge of Shakespeare to love this brilliant book. Kudos to the audiobook narrator, Ell Potter. I can't wait to buy and reread my own physical copy.

Really well written. The two contrasting emotions in past and present POVs makes you feel all the emotions. The book is written from the point of view of William Shakespeare’s family, around the time of death of his son Hamnet. The emotions of love and loss are explored in the book, and the last quarter is sad to read. The feeling of grief after Hamnet dies, experienced by multiple people in the family, is experienced in depth.

TW: Death of a child, grief

Just saying the book is by Maggie O'Farrell should be review enough. But for those who are not familiar with her work, should pick up Hamnet without delay.
The fictionalization of the death of William Shakespeare's young son from the Black Plague, and the ways in which it alters and devastates him and his family, is made even more gut-wrenching by O'Farrell's talent for description and lyrical prose. The book almost reads like one of Shakespeare's tragedies, slowly building the inner and external drama of the characters, until everything is laid out for the audience to see.

Beautiful and haunting this triumphant piece of literary fiction is every bit as tragic and gorgeous as the play it's title character inspires. This is one of those rare, rich literary treats that needs to be savored over a long period of time so you can soak up every word. Its impossible not become completely immersed in the strangely sensuous grimy world of Elizabethan England, a world infused with just a touch of strange and the barest hint of magic.

This is a heartbreaking read that I loved enough to wish was actually a true story, a true window into the world of the greatest playwright who's ever lived.

In her latest novel, “Hamnet,” Maggie O’Farrell crafts a portrait of a family as they lose one of their own to the plague in England during 1580. The story follows the young love between Agnes and a Latin tutor who later becomes her husband and the daily life of her children and relatives in the small town of Stratford. “Hamnet” begins with a young boy trying to find an adult to help his ailing sister and from there the novel spins out to detail how his family was formed, how it was fractured by loss and how the family makes steps to heal from their loss.

O’Farrell’s beautiful description palpably conjures the images of bucolic life in Stratford as she weaves her heartrending tale. At times the plot meanders as O’Farrell falls off course to share details about the town’s dislike of Agnes’ father-in-law or how her own childhood was shaped by grief and her cruel stepmother. Even when O’Farrell seems to be losing the trail of the story for these asides into the other character’s backgrounds, she captivates the reader with her bewitching prose. Each distinct character adds new layer to the family’s narrative as she gracefully offers a backstory to the events that could have inspired William Shakespeare (who is never referred to by his actual name in the novel, only as the father, the husband, the son, the Latin tutor, etc.) to write his tragic play, “Hamlet.”

Her mesmerizing depiction of Shakespeare and his family is not to be missed as she writes about the family’s personal tragedy with delicate care and compassion.

I frequently struggle with historical fiction that involves a known figure, so I had a bit of trepidation about picking up Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, which explores the story of the death of Shakespeare’s young son—ultimately leading to the creation of the play Hamlet. But this gorgeous book smartly makes Shakespeare himself an unnamed supporting character in favor of telling the story of his wife and children. Moving effortlessly back and forth in time, Hamnet gives the indelible Agnes her own place in history. She is not a character you will soon forget.

Filled with indelible, relatable characters, Hamnet will lure you in with sumptuous prose and captivate you with its timeless observations about the world. It is a deeply human and timeless story about love, life, death, and grief. And I am so glad that I read it.

Reading a book that heavily deals with the Black Plague in 2020, a year of lockdowns as a result of a global pandemic, may seem like an uncomfortable proposition--indeed, it is alarming how relatable moments like London's theatres closing due to Plague have become. But anyone wary of "too much reality" can be assured that there is enough historical distance to satisfy at least this anxious reader. Still, trigger warnings are in place.

You can find my full review in the link here: https://supposedlyfun.com/2020/08/17/hamnet-by-maggie-ofarrell-book-review/

(3.5 stars rounded down).

Once upon a time, there was a son of a glover who became one of the greatest playwrights known to man. He married a woman named Anne Hathaway and together they had 3 children; Susanna, and a set of twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet tragically passed away at only 11 years old. Several years later, William Shakespeare wrote <i>Hamlet</i>. This we know.

And therein lies the entire plot/conflict of <u>Hamnet</u>. O'Farrell is obviously a talented writer. Her wordy descriptions of Stratford and its townsfolk can transport you back to the 1500s with ease. The issue I took with this novel was simply that I knew the main conflict from page one, so there wasn't really anything else to keep me interested in reading this novel to its conclusion. <u>Hamnet</u> is a beautifully-wordy written novel that speculates upon the earlier years of William Shakespeare and what happened to his young son. But other than that, it's a story that focuses on character development and not much else.

Just wonderful! This is described as a fictional account of William Shakespeare’s life and family, and it is that. But the most striking aspect for me was the story of being a woman in that particular time in history, including love, marriage, motherhood, and the ways in which people experience grief. The historical context was interesting, but the themes were relatable and very moving. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.

A beautiful, lyrical imagining of William Shakespeare’s family, of the short life and death of his son Hamnet, and the effect this death has on the family.

My goodness. Ms O'Farrell must be the queen of emotion description. With the story revolving around Shakespeare's family, particularly his wife (Agnes), there is ample opportunity for emotions to be written of--black death is rampant, living with brutal in-laws, an interfering ugly step-mother, etc. But the novel is so well written, the story so interesting, and the ending so perfect that I just loved it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for the ARC to read and review.

Historical fiction is not a genre I turn to often, but I am glad to have had this book recommended to me. It offers a deeply emotional portrait of a family who suffers a tragedy during an outbreak of the plague in late 1500s England and the many ways it affects their personal lives, relationships, and creative output. However, instead of building the story around one who would normally be the focal point--William Shakespeare, though never named outright--the story resides largely within the lives of his wife Agnes (Anne) and their three children, as well as their extended families.

As a young woman, Agnes is a misfit--a "seer" and one who treats others with the healing properties of plants--in her own family, but she finds her soulmate in the Latin tutor educating her brothers--a man whose dreams also do not fit in with the expectations of working on his father's glove-making business. In this fictionalized account, together they build a loving life and home, but Agnes sees to it that her husband is able to spread his wings to meet his true calling. However, after the pestilence takes one of their children, this separation threatens to break them as they deal with their grief alone. Worse, the townspeople and Agnes herself cannot comprehend how her husband could package their loss for audiences to see--but that, too, has a magic of its own.

Take that, you male Shakespeare biographers. Maggie O’Farrell takes the same documents you have used and makes Shakespeare’s marriage to Agnes (Anne) Hathaway into a much more interesting story. As the story opens, the Shakespeare’s 11-year old son, Hamnet, is desperately searching for his grandmother or mother because his sister has a fever. In chapters that move from the past to the present and back, this story focuses on how grief takes over our lives. It is not Hamnet’s sister, but Hamnet’s himself who dies. Shakespeare, himself, spends most of his time in London working on plays, and as the ending of the novel suggests, Shakespeare named his pay “Hamlet” in memory of his son. For along with grief, there is love and the need to carry on for the rest of the family. O’Farrell has taken what little is known about Hamlet and the Shakespeare family life and made them real, while fleshing out their lives with the daily events of the late 16th century.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200722-eerily-prescient-2020-plague-novels

From BBC Culture

Speaking as one who only very rarely weeps while reading, I confess I cried twice during this gripping, artful piece of work. The novel is a triumph of word painting, so visual, so translucent, and yet so deftly constructed. Historical fiction can get bogged down in language and period but this one floats free, empathetic and warm, a little soft but wholly engrossing. Good stuff.

First, let me say….I’ve never read a book that captivated my attention so completely as Maggie O'Farrell’s Hamnet. I’ll see if I can keep my thoughts to a minimum as “brevity is the soul of wit.”

I sat down to read Hamnet in somewhat of a hurry, almost assignment-like. As a high school English teacher, I just knew this one needed to be on my summer TBR list and summer was nearing its end.

My profound love for every line in Hamlet was reason enough to pick up this book. Never did I expect to be drawn into its pages by a sense of shared motherhood. Hamnet is a beautifully written exploration of marriage, grief, and loss which was, sadly, typical of daily Tudor life. What I loved most about his book is it shows us a side of the Bard by focusing on those he loved most.

To my surprise, I noticed early on that Shakespeare is never mentioned by name. He’s referred to as brother, son, husband, father, tutor, player, and sometimes, just a simple “him”. I felt that this removed the superhuman quality we all place on the man. It grounds him. It makes him one of us. It was an impactful choice on the part of the author as the focus of the novel is on the strong female protagonist, Agnes (or Anne), Shakespeare’s wife.

The story is told from the perspective of an omniscient narrator giving us a glimpse into the thoughts of all characters. Not limited to the human perspective, we also know how the fox feels as he escapes danger and how a lively flea finds its next host. All part of O'Farrell's magnificent storytelling, this is just one of the many reasons to read this book.

Coincidentally, I visited Stratford, England one year ago today. Had I read this before visiting I would have walked down Henley St. with tears in my eyes as O'Farrell's powerful and emotionally engaging prose captures so perfectly the grief suffered throughout the novel.

It’s no surprise that this novel has been shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. It is, hands down, one of my favorite books of the year!!!