Hamnet

By: Maggie O'Farrell

Narrated by: Ell Potter

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • Now a major motion picture starring ACADEMY AWARD® winner Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, and Joe Alwyn, directed by Chloé Zhao.

The acclaimed author of the Reese's Book Club pick The Marriage Portrait delivers a deeply moving novel about the death of Shakespeare’s eleven-year-old son, Hamnet, and the years leading up to the production of his great play Hamlet.

"Miraculous. . . . Brilliant. . . . A novel told with the urgency of a whispered prayer—or curse. . . . A richly drawn and intimate portrait of 16th-century English life set against the arrival of one devastating death." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young alike. The end of days is near, but life always goes on.

A young Latin tutor—penniless and bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman. Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is just taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.

Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down—a magnificent leap forward from one of our most gifted novelists.

Absolute genius

Easily one of the finest novels of the last twenty-five years. Just one man’s opinion. Well, I’m not in fact a man, I’m a well-known actress posing as a man for the sake of audible reviews, but it’s a figure of… okay, you get the idea. Always, Geoff

Wordsmithing worthy of The Bard

Those last few pages are so beautifully written that it could be a stand-alone prose poem. And the book may have the best closing sentence ever.

Best read I’m a long time

A touching story about grief and loss of a child affected a family. Narrator had a lyrical soothing voice and was beautiful and easy to listen to

Superbly and creatively crafted story

This masterful book is a must-read. Author Maggie O'Farrell imagines in every detail the life of late 16th century England. She builds from two key facts -- that Shakespeare had a son, Hamnet (also known as Hamlet), who died at the age of 11, and that four years later Shakespeare wrote the tragedy, Hamlet. From a combination of known facts, an understanding of life in those times, and an amazing ability to put herself in the shoes of the Shakespeare family, she fills in all the details of this story. O'Farrell's creative and detailed recounting of how "the pestilence" found its way from Egypt to England is extraordinary. So is her filling out the character of Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway (known as Agnes). Ell Potter is brilliant as the narrator. When I finished this book, I realized that I had missed many of the details that ultimately took on great importance. On a second reading, the book is even better than on the first. Knowing what to look for has opened my eyes even further to the skilled manner in which O'Farrell has carefully but subtly provided the reader with information early in the story that will take on great significance later in the book. It is really well done.

Beautifully written!

What a marvelous work of fiction!!
Loved every single word! Your write feelings incredibly well! I feel what your characters are feeling!