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Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague

September 6, 2021

hamnet

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Published by Tinder Press
Publication date: March 31, 2020
Genres: Book Clubs, Fiction, Historical, Literary
five-stars
Your Local Book Store, Amazon

What never ceases to amaze me is the way one person can take the smallest notation from history, and turn it into a story of staggering depth and beauty that the rest of us would never have even considered. In this case, I’m referring to Maggie O’Farrell and her newest novel, Hamnet, the story of one real little boy in 16th century England, his mother, the bubonic plague, and the greatest playwright in the English language. The boy is Hamnet and he died of unknown causes when he was eleven, but O’Farrell’s fertile imagination brings him back as the creative spark that lights one of his father’s best-known tragedies, Hamlet.

 Hamnet has a twin sister, Judith and when the novel begins she has fallen ill while they’re home alone. She has gone from fine to feverish with lumps under her skin around her neck and armpit. Even as an 11-year-old he knows what this is likely to mean. As he runs for a doctor we briefly meet his family, all out in the innocuous rhythm of a normal day. His mother picks herbs at a nearby farm, his grandmother and older sister are out making deliveries. His father is away in London working. Unable to find help, Hamnet returns alone to the person he knows best, his closest companion and waits.

From this urgent scene, Hamnet moves back 15 years to a young Latin tutor, daydreaming of another life, when he sees a woman so unusual he is irrevocably smitten. Despite being older than he is and he with no real trade, they marry. Her name is Agnes and she’s believed to be a witchy sort of woman, always in the forest, mixing potions, and with a strange way of looking at people and knowing what they’re thinking. In this way, she knows her husband is not meant for a life of tutoring. He needs the freedom to unleash the words filling his head, so she encourages him to go to London as often as he needs to pursue his dreams.

Except now, in the present, he is away and their daughter is dying. Until she is not and it is Hamnet who lays dead. The only son, the other half to Judith’s half. The father arrives home to find him gone and his wife mad with grief.

She cannot understand it. She, who can hear the dead, the unspoken, the unknown, who can touch a person and listen to the creep of disease along the veins…can read a person’s eye and heart like some can read a book. She cannot find, cannot locate the spirit of her own child. 

Hamnet is extraordinary in the way of the finest writing. O’Farrell brings forth a word world where a flea’s voyage on a single ship from Madagascar to England has the same immediacy as all the permutations of love—new, between siblings, hard fought, as a parent, and dying. She picks up the smallest filament of a life, spins it into a brilliant, multihued thread, and weaves that into an unforgettable story. The final page of Hamnet is one of the most sorrowful and poignant I’ve ever read.

 

 

This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I get a small commission (at no cost to you).

 

five-stars

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12 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, England, historical fiction, literary

Comments

  1. Linda S. says

    September 6, 2021 at 8:44 am

    I am quite picky with 5 stars, as I save them for books like this. Maggie O’Farrell’s prose is such a treat to read; her writing style is crisp, clear, edited, and thoughtful. For me, this is a book about being a mother and a wife of a famous husband. I loved the way the focus of the book was not on Shakespeare but on Agnes and especially the love she had for her children. Thank you for writing this amazing review Catherine!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      September 11, 2021 at 3:24 pm

      Thank you and that’s exactly what I loved about the novel- Shakespeare was never named. I thought it was stunning.

      What other O’Farrell novels would you recommend?

      Reply
      • Linda S. says

        September 12, 2021 at 7:51 am

        “This Must Be the Place” is wonderful and also “This Must Be the Place.” I loved both of these.

        Reply
        • Catherine says

          September 17, 2021 at 11:52 am

          Great, adding to my TBR!

          Reply
      • Mary Beth says

        September 12, 2021 at 10:43 am

        I loved This Must Be the Place by O’Farrell.

        Reply
        • Catherine says

          September 17, 2021 at 11:52 am

          Thank you!

          Reply
  2. Nicole says

    September 6, 2021 at 10:12 am

    This was such a magnificent book. I really enjoyed your review!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      September 11, 2021 at 3:25 pm

      I still tear up thinking about the ending. I adored this novel.

      Reply
  3. Laila says

    September 6, 2021 at 10:14 am

    Lovely review! I’ve heard nothing but praise for this novel but I know that I couldn’t take it, as a mother to a ten year old boy.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      September 11, 2021 at 3:26 pm

      I imagine that would be difficult. Maybe TBR for another few years.

      Reply
  4. Susan says

    September 7, 2021 at 11:15 am

    Yes I liked this one as well. The author really puts you right there … and I imagined their family & the times all so well. It’s captivating.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      September 11, 2021 at 3:28 pm

      Yes! It’s the 1500s- not much going on, but she makes that world so vivid.

      Reply

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