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Hamnet  By  cover art

Hamnet

By: Maggie O'Farrell
Narrated by: Daisy Donovan
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Publisher's summary

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"[An] exceptional winner. . . . It expresses something profound about the human experience that seems both extraordinarily current and at the same time, enduring." —Martha Lane Fox, Chair of The Women's Prize for Fiction judges

Two extraordinary people. A love that draws them together. A plague that threatens to tear them apart.

England, 1580. A young Latin tutor—penniless, bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an eccentric young woman: a wild creature who walks her family's estate with a falcon on her shoulder and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer. Agnes understands plants and potions better than she does people, but once she settles on the Henley Street in Stratford she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband. His gifts as a writer are just beginning to awaken when their beloved twins, Hamnet and Judith, are afflicted with the bubonic plague, and, devastatingly, one of them succumbs to the illness.

A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a hypnotic recreation of the story that inspired one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing and seductive, an impossible-to-put-down novel from one of our most gifted writers.

©2020 Maggie O'Farrell (P)2020 Knopf Canada

Critic reviews

2020, Irish Novel of the Year, Short-listed

2020, Women's Prize for Fiction, Winner

2020, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Winner

2021, British Book Award - Fiction Book of the Year, Winner

2021, Dalkey Literary Awards - Novel of the Year, Winner

2021, Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Short-listed

"What could be more common, over centuries and continents, than the death of a child - and yet Maggie O’Farrell, with her flawless sentences and furious heart, somehow makes it new. This story of remarkable people bereft of their boy will leave you shaking with loss but also the love from which family is spun." (Emma Donoghue, author of Room)

"Love, grief, hope, resilience - the world of this novel is so vivid I could nearly smell the grass in the fields, hear the rain in the gutters. In moments where the story shoots up to heaven I was there, too, grieving with these characters, feeling how lucky we all are to be alive, understanding how desperately we want the people we love to be remembered. It’s without a doubt one of the best novels I’ve ever read." (Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes)

What listeners say about Hamnet

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Amazing!

This may be my favorite book of all time. The writing was stunning and the story beautiful. The narrator was perfect.

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Amazing

This is an incredible book. Heartbreakingly beautiful and true to our deepest emotions. I’ll be listening to this again.

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