Hamnet

This National Book Critics Circle Award Winner and New York Times Bestseller reimagines one of history’s most haunting mysteries: the death of Shakespeare’s only son.

Maggie O’Farrell weaves a spellbinding tale set in 1580s England, where the shadow of plague darkens every doorway. At its heart is Agnes—a healer, a wild soul who walks with a falcon on her glove, a woman who understands the language of plants better than people. When she falls for a young Latin tutor fleeing his violent father, their love story becomes the bedrock of one of literature’s greatest legacies.

But this isn’t a story about a famous playwright. It’s about a mother’s fierce love, a marriage tested by ambition and distance, and the devastating loss of a child. As Agnes’s husband finds success on London’s stages, their son Hamnet succumbs to sudden fever—a tragedy that will echo through the ages in ways neither parent could imagine.

O’Farrell’s prose is gorgeously transportive, bringing Elizabethan England to vivid, sensory life. You’ll smell the herbs drying in Agnes’s cottage, feel the worn floorboards of Henley Street, and hear the rustle of pages being written in grief and remembrance. This is historical fiction at its finest—intimate, heartbreaking, and utterly mesmerizing.

Perfect for readers who loved The Nightingale or Wolf Hall, and for anyone who has ever wondered about the lives hidden behind great art.

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