Published 31st March 2020 by Tinder Press.
Audio book narrated by Daisy Donovan.
From the cover of the book:
On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?
Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.
Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week.
Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.
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In 1596, a young boy longs for death to take his life instead of that of his twin sister. This boy is Hamnet, the only son of one of the most famous playwrights the world has ever know, William Shakespeare. His wish is granted.
Although very little is actually known about the home life of Shakespeare and his family, Maggie O'Farrell channels her fascination with them to spin a fictional tale that speculates how the death of Hamnet might have affected those left behind.
The structure of the story is rather fragmented at the beginning, moving between scenes of Hamnet's distress as his twin sister Judith is struck down with a violent illness, and flashbacks to the history of his parents' relationship. The pattern continues up to the terrible scenes in which Hamnet dies unexpectedly in place of his frailer sister, and then follows the story of how his death impacts the household.
It took me a while to get into this story, as I found the constant back and forth a bit disorienting, especially as O'Farrell immerses you immediately in such heart-wrenching pain on the part of characters you do not yet know. I flipped back and forth between the audio book and the hardback, determined to discover what it is about this book that has garnered so much praise, but I admit I did struggle. Once the voice of the fierce and unconventional Agnes comes to the fore though, I began to feel a connection to them all through her experiences as a wife and mother, and slowly became immersed in the story.
O'Farrell does an amazing job of portraying Tudor family life, and I very much enjoyed how she pieces together what little we know about this family to make such a compelling story. Her use of the name Agnes, rather than the more familiar Anne, is intriguing, and gives her the freedom to make this woman all her own - which she does beautifully, fashioning her as a wise woman with uncanny abilities.
It is the human side of these characters that focuses your attention, and the way O'Farrell examines the effect of Hamnet's loss on them all is intensely poignant. This is very much a tale about the women in Shakespeares' family, especially his wife and mother, and how they find common ground through the losses that have affected them, even though their relationships are difficult.
Interestingly, Shakespeare himself is not named at all in this novel, although his inner turmoil and drive to release the creative impulses within him is a central theme. I think O'Farrell does a fabulous job of describing how someone with his formidable genius cannot be a character who it is easy to live with or love. In many ways, his self-absorption makes him the villain of the piece, and this has left me with feelings about him as a man which I find difficult to reconcile with the sensitivity and insight of his work.
However, it is the place where O'Farrell leads you at the end of this story, where Agnes finally comes to understand the side of her husband that has been hidden from her for so long, that gives this book such power. I adore how she brings meaning to the play that bears Shakespeare's son's name by placing so much significance on the theme of ghosts - and whether this was Shakespeare's intention of not, it has undeniably preserved his memory for posterity. Even though this is a book that I did not come to easily, the emotional intensity that this story brings at its conclusion makes everything worthwhile. I found myself sobbing by the time I closed the cover.
This is a book that has been languishing on the shelf for a considerable time, and I am glad to have finally picked it up. There are many things about it that will stay with me, even if it has left me with conflicted feelings about Shakespeare himself. If you have visited Stratford-upon-Avon then it definitely adds an extra dimension too.
Hamnet is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.
About the author:
Her novels include AFTER YOU’D GONE, MY LOVER’S LOVER, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE and THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, and THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT.
She is also the author of two books for children, WHERE SNOW ANGELS GO and THE BOY WHO LOST HIS SPARK. She lives in Edinburgh.
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