Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell
“Every life has its kernel, its hub, its epicentre, from which everything flows out, to which everything returns.”
This is the story of Hamnet, William Shakespeare’s ill-fated son who died aged eleven, but whose name lives on in one of most celebrated plays of all time.
As very few records remain, very little is known about Shakespeare’s children, except for the title of Hamlet and the preponderance of twins in many of Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare was working for his father as a glove-maker when he married Anne Hathaway (here renamed Agnes) at the age of eighteen.
Hamnet is a story of grief, loss, family, and love; it is a story about the love and devotion between twins, Judith and Hamnet, and their older sister Susanna. Set in 1596, O’Farrell’s novel follows the life of Hamnet as he cares for his ailing sister; however, as Judith’s fever becomes worse, Hamnet also succumbs to the illness. Their father works in London – far away from the family home in Stratford Upon Avon – and their mother is away, growing the herbs she hopes can save their lives. As the story develops, we learn more about the family in a novel that is rich in language, description, and pathos.
The ending of the novel, set after Hamlet has been written and performed, acts as a particularly revealing insight into how Anne Hathaway saw Shakespeare, as her husband and the father of her children, rather than the world-famous playwright he would become.
Hamnet is incredibly well written, balancing the sadness and pathos of the central actions with details of everyday life in London and Stratford upon Avon. Although it is meticulously well researched, none of the historical elements take away from the central themes of loss, family, and the ways in which life continues after catastrophic and tragic events.
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