Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell
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.
My thanks to Georgina Moore at Midas PR and to Anne Cater for the chance to join the Hamnet blog tour.
Now and then I like to change the reading focus. Move away from the gritty crime, graphic horrors and fantastical space adventures and read something out of my comfort zone. Hamnet, I believe, falls into the Literary Fiction category which is not somewhere I tend to dwell and it takes something pretty special to hold my flighty attention. Fortunately, for the sake of this review, Hamnet was one of those gems which kept me reading.
Hamnet is the son of a famous playwright, yes THAT playwrite, but the playwright’s name is never actually mentioned by name in the book – even though he plays a key role in the story.
The playwright is father of twins and at the start of the novel his boy, Hamnet, is frantic with worry for his twin sister who is sick in bed. Hamnet can’t find any of his family and doesn’t know what to do to help his sister.
The opening passages are a delightfully told journey around Hamnet’s house and the streets where he lives. We hear his anxieties, learn about his family – his mother, his father who is travelling to London, his irritable grandfather who makes gloves in the workshop which Hamnet will only enter with caution. Out the house and through the streets to seek the doctor (out seeing a patient) and home again to his ailing twin. The imagery and language used by the author bring events to life in a way I found transfixing.
Though the story is very much about Hamnet we also have some jumping back into the past to see how Hamnet’s mother (Agnes) met his father. Agnes has a witch-like ability to read people which I found fascinating. Maggie O’Farrell gives us a sad accounting of Agnes’s life – the girl who had a desperately tough childhood. The girl who lost her mother at a young age and seemed almost feral to the families who tried to raise her.
The author evokes empathy, frustration or sorrow as the story unfolded. It almost seemed effortless at times as the beautiful language she uses unfurled a story of family and the struggles they endure.
It is easy to see why Hamnet is gathering so much praise, this is fantastic storytelling and it’s a book which held me captivated.
Hamnet is published by Tinder Press and is available in Hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1472223799/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0