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Hamnet

Listen to the bestselling novel before you see the award winning film

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Hamnet

By: Maggie O'Farrell
Narrated by: Jessie Buckley
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About this listen

 **LISTEN TO HAMNET STAR JESSIE BUCKLEY'S UNFORGETTABLE NEW RECORDING BEFORE YOU SEE THE FILM**

'Richly sensuous... something special' The Sunday Times
'A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell

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 sudden 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 Hamnet will not survive the week.

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION - THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER 2021
WINNER: WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
WINNER: FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR, BRITISH BOOK AWARDS
WINNER: BOOKS ARE MY BAG READER'S CHOICE AWARD
AS FEATURED ON BBC2'S BETWEEN THE COVERS
SHORTLISTED: AN POST IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR, WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION©2020 Maggie O'Farrell Biographical Fiction Family Life Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Renaissance Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Fiction

Critic reviews

Stunning. The writing is exquisite, immersive and compelling... deserves to win prizes
The story of Hamnet Shakespeare has been waiting in the shadows for over four hundred years. Maggie O'Farrell brings it dazzlingly, devastatingly, into the light
Grief and loss so finely written I could hardly bear to read it
Heartstopping. Hamnet does for the Shakespeare story what Jean Rhys did for Jane Eyre, inhabiting, enlarging and enriching it in ways that will alter the reader's view for ever
Blisteringly brilliant... You'll lap up this intricately told story of grief, love and the bond between twins
[A] rich imagining of the lives of Shakespeare's family enchants... O'Farrell's remarkable novel bursts with life
A beautiful read. A devastating one. Intricate, and breathtakingly imaginative
A bold undertaking. Beautifully imagined and written
Richly sensuous...something special
The novel of her career... everyone I know who has managed to get hold of a copy is absolutely in love with it
A staggeringly beautiful and unbearably poignant novel. O'Farrell is one of the most surprisingly quiet radicals in fiction
All stars
Most relevant
A really beautifully written and performed story of Agnes and the tragedy that falls on her family. This wouldn’t be my normal genre, but it really is a wonderful listen.

Beautifully written

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Right, Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet. This one… it's not just a book, it’s an experience. I’d heard so much about it, of course, everyone was raving, but you never quite know until you dive in yourself. And when I did, it pulled me under in the best possible way.
What O'Farrell does is take this historical footnote – the death of Shakespeare’s son – and blow it open into a world so rich and palpable, you almost feel like you're breathing the same air as Agnes and her family. And Agnes! She's the real star here. Forget "Shakespeare's wife," O'Farrell gives us this incredible, wild, intuitive woman with her herbs, her bees, and a connection to the natural world that just vibrates off the page. I mean, the way she feels things, sees things, it's just captivating.
The storytelling, hopping between the unfolding tragedy and the earlier, passionate spark between Agnes and the young Latin tutor… it’s seamless. You know where it's all heading, but it doesn't make the journey any less heartbreaking. The sheer, visceral depiction of the plague's arrival, that scene where it travels across the country, it's so vivid it gave me chills. And the grief… oh, the grief. O'Farrell doesn't shy away from the raw, messy, all-consuming agony of losing a child. You feel Agnes’s pain, her desperate yearning, her inability to move on, and it’s just gut-wrenching.
Honestly, this book is less about the famous playwright and more about the invisible lives, the quiet strength of the women, and the devastating impact of loss. It’s written with such tenderness and precision that you're just immersed in their lives, their smells, their fears, their love. Hamnet is one of those books that settles in your bones and makes you think about legacy, memory, and how even the most profound sorrow can inspire something truly immortal. An absolute triumph, honestly.

Hamnet: A Heart-Wrenching Masterpiece

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Fantastic novel. Such beautiful turns of phrase… with this narration truly being the icing on the cake.

The most beautiful narration.

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Heartbreaking yet uplifting at times the description is golden and read with such passion and feeling. You must hear this. Must.

Wonderfully descriptive beautiful performed

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Jessie Buckley read with clarity and intonation in a calm, measured way. She did the text justice.

Beautifully written with descriptive and detailed language.

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