‘Miraculous’ Observer
‘A bold undertaking, beautifully imagined and written’ Claire Tomalin
TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.
On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?
Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.
HAMNET is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story
of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is
also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; flea that boards a ship in
Alexandria; and a glovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the
woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy
whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the
most celebrated plays ever written.
Author Biography
Maggie O'Farrell is the author of the Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling memoir
I AM, I AM, I AM, and eight novels: AFTER YOU'D GONE, MY LOVER'S LOVER, THE
DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF
ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel
Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa
Novel Award, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Costa
Novel Award, and HAMNET. She lives in Edinburgh.