Hamnet

Description

Maggie O’Farrell, “Hamnet,” is a historical novel that masterfully weaves the life of William Shakespeare and the tragic loss of his son, Hamnet, who at the ripe age of 11 perished. The novel takes you to late 16th-century England where all the gaps in the story are filled around the contours of grief, love, family, and the relations between art and life.

There are essentially two timelines that get rolled out within the narrative:

The Past It goes back to the early years of Shakespeare, and Anne Hathaway is his wife. The novel narrates the love affair as well as the plight of being a young couple before they had children. In addition, the book follows the social and economic stress faced by families at that time. The twins Hamnet and Judith are also part of it, and the bond the brother and sister share is quite distinctive.

Now: The action shifts to that summer when Hamnet fell ill and died from the plague, an event that will severely impact the whole family. O’Farrell movingly captures the sense of loss the family feels at this time, as well as how enormous a hole Hamnet’s dying puts in the lives of all those who love him.

The title “Hamnet” thus applies because it connects to the character of Hamlet himself, since this play is often believed by historians to have been written by Shakespeare after he lost his son, which makes it much more poignant to explore that idea.

O’Farrell is richly evocative in her writing, conjuring emotions of character and the feel of the era. She expertly intertwines historical facts with fictional ones, giving Shakespeare’s family a sense of life as she works to create a powerful exploration of how love and loss shape one’s identity and creativity.

Hamnet”: this novel wins the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and lyrical prose with its high emotional points. The book encourages readers to ponder over the nature of grief and how it can be deeply affected by loss.

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