HAMNET | MAGGIE O’FARRELL | 2019

Whoa! This book grabbed me by the heart and would not let go. It’s hard to imagine the home life of William Shakespeare but Maggie O’Farrell has done so lyrically, with language appropriate for the era without resorting to cumbersome vernacular.

It’s the story of the death of Shakespeare’s son Hamnet from plague aged just eleven that takes up most of the narrative. And that does not make it one bit macabre or ghoulish. Yes it’s sad. Yes it’s graphic but not in a violent way but in the human way that death of a loved one touches us all.

This is yet another book that uses magic realism to take you into a world of youth, love, and healing. The descriptions are long, the conversations few and the emotions of the characters, especially Hamnet’s mother Agnes drew physical sensations from my heart, gut and mind as I was reading.

Grief and death are hard to deal with and when it’s a child it is doubly painful. I felt Agnes’ sorrow and the guilt of Hamnet’s grandfather and at times had to pace myself. Not only due to the exquisite pain but also as I didn’t want it to end. Beautiful writing, striking phrases unite Agnes and William in their grief for their son.

Apparently the name Hamnet is a version of Hamlet and we all know that name very well.