It took me a long time to get through this book. I loved the premise. It is the story of Shakespeare's wife...someone we really don't know anything about. The author has made many assumptions and I was comfortable with them. The book does a really good job of expressing the inner thoughts and agony of this family. I found myself really relating to her heartache over her son that died. Also her anger when her husband wrote a play using his name. I have had similar reactions when I feel like people aren't respecting my children. I liked how the author made her quite independent and wise, almost able to read people's thoughts. It's a well-written book.
Goodreads says:
Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare's most enigmatic play, Hamnet is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.
Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.
Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.
A New York Times Notable Book (2020), Best Book of 2020: Guardian, Financial Times, Literary Hub, and NPR.
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