Hamnet ~ Maggie O’Farrell

I picked up Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell last year in Waterstones when it originally came out in paperback. Maggie O’Farrell has been one of my favourite authors since my high school librarian recommended her book The Hand That First Held Mine to me. Since then I have been making my way through most of her novels. Hamnet intrigued me, but I was also very intimidated due to it being a Shakespeare retelling.

Hamnet follows the lives of two young people. Whos love draws them together, but a major loss that follows only threatens to tear them apart. It is the year 1596 and a young girl lays in her bed struck by a fever. Her twin Hamnet helplessly searches the street for his family. For anyone to help. Their mother Agnes over a mile away tending to her garden. A father away working in London. However, no one could imagine that by the end of the week one twin would not survive. 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.

Although a slow burn to start with I was mesmerised by O’Farrell’s writing as always. I loved how she took this infamous story and made them such a normal family living through the strife anyone would have in the late 16th century. The present story was also laced with chapters of how Agnes and her husband met when he was 18 and she was 26. I loved how Shakespeare was never named specifically, he was only ever mentioned as ‘the father’ or ‘the husband’. Even Stratford was rarely mentioned with O’Farrell choosing to use specific street names and areas instead. This put so much emphasis on the daily domestic lives they were leading and that they could be any old family. In fact, Agnes is much more the celebrity of their town. Her unconventional ways and beliefs are often trailing with rumours. 

Hamnet is unlike any other book I have read of O’Farrell’s. She manages to create this world that to the readers seems completely convincing but otherworldly at the same time. It is also evident on every page just how much research went into creating this novel. Page after page you are plunged into the Stratford home, the smells of the house and adjoining glove makers workshop. This read is ultimately stricken with grief but also highlights the tenderness of the fraught relationship between Agnes and her husband and how they deal with their separation.

This novel is a testament to the fact that even the most notable historical figures have new stories that are waiting to be told and that O’Farrell is such a truly versatile writer. I gave Hamnet a 4⭐️ rating.

M🌸