Hamnet

By: Maggie O'Farrell

Narrated by: Ell Potter

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Of all the stories that argue and speculate about Shakespeare’s life ... here is a novel ... so gorgeously written that it transports you."—The Boston Globe

In 1580’s England, during the Black Plague a young Latin tutor falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman in this “exceptional historical novel” (The New Yorker) and best-selling winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

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 taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.

A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, and whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down—a magnificent leap forward from one of our most gifted novelists.

Don’t miss Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel, The Marriage Portrait!

©2020 Maggie O'Farrell (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • One of Bill Gates's Favorite Books of the Year • Book Club Pick: Duchess Camilla Parker Bowles’ The Reading Room

"O'Farrell has a melodic relationship to language. There is a poetic cadence to her writing and a lushness in her descriptions of the natural world. . . . We can smell the tang of the various new leathers in the glover's workshop, the fragrance of the apples racked a finger-width apart in the winter storage shed. . . . As the book unfolds, it brings its story to a tender and ultimately hopeful conclusion: that even the greatest grief, the most damaged marriage, and most shattered heart might find some solace, some healing."—Geraldine Brooks, the New York Times Book Review

"Magnificent and searing. . . . A family saga so bursting with life, touched by magic, and anchored in affection. . . . Of all the stories that argue and speculate about Shakespeare’s life, about whether he even wrote his own plays, here is a novel that matches him with a woman overwhelmingly more than worthy."—The Boston Globe

"A tour de force. . . . Hamnet vividly captures the life-changing intensity of maternity in its myriad stages—from the pain of childbirth to the unassuagable grief of loss. Fierce emotions and lyrical prose are what we've come to expect of O'Farrell."—NPR

Riveting and engrossing historical fiction

This is a beautiful novel reminiscent of Ken Follets pillars of the earth. Spare poetic writing. I listened to the entire novel in one day. If you enjoy Hilary mantels wolf hall and subsequent books, you will be immersed here

Hypnotic listen

I'm only an hour in, but the narration is pitch-perfect (not at all over dramatized), and the language is poetry. So entranced!

Almost Perfect

This novel isn’t about Shakespeare. It is much, much more. The family he left behind in Stratford, their lives and tragedies. I’m not a crier but I was deeply moved and there were tears.
The writing felt like poetry. Reading on a page, rather than listening, could not capture this quality. Hamnet deserves every bit of praise. I’m so glad I listened to the announcement of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2020. I’m sure I wouldn’t otherwise have read Hamnet.
Take my advice and give yourself over to it.

Wonderful historical novel

Though there is scant plot and dialogue, this story is compelling, with a beautifully matched narrator’s voice. The pain of a child’s loss is well described, without being morbid. Historical details are excellent and appreciated: they bring that time in old England to life.

Best book I’ve read in a long time

I love historical fiction & this will go down as one of my favorites. The writing was so beautiful, I could envision all of it! I loved Agnes. Thank you Maggie O’Farrell.

Sad but well-worth the read

The writing is amazing - descriptions, details, description of emotions, etc. At points it is so sad that it is hard to listen to. But, perhaps that is part of what makes it such a good story. After reading it, I looked up the historical accuracy, and it was spot on in many ways. Made me like it even more. Narration is excellent as well.

Beautiful prose, a stark examination of grief

This is really about Hamnet's mother, Shakespeare's wife, though you will never hear Shakespeare's name mentioned once. The author manages to evoke Elizabethan England in beautiful detail while bringing the emotions to life in a way that makes them feel like modern characters you might know.

great book

I love this book the performance was excellent the story was excellent almost ended too soon for me but I thought it was very well done and very well-thought-out

Magnificent!

As if this exquisite narrative could be more beautiful, the reader's delivery makes it so.

Exceptional!!!

The storytelling is so vivid it is like you are there with a whole new awareness of the ordinary and extraordinary. The narrator carries you there, entranced.