Hamnet Audiobook By Maggie O'Farrell cover art

Hamnet

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Hamnet

By: Maggie O'Farrell
Narrated by: Jessie Buckley
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Buy for $23.40

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • Now a major motion picture starring ACADEMY AWARD® winner Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, and Joe Alwyn, directed by Chloé Zhao.

The acclaimed author of the Reese's Book Club pick The Marriage Portrait delivers a deeply moving novel about the death of Shakespeare’s eleven-year-old son, Hamnet, and the years leading up to the production of his great play Hamlet.

"Miraculous. . . . Brilliant. . . . A novel told with the urgency of a whispered prayer—or curse. . . . A richly drawn and intimate portrait of 16th-century English life set against the arrival of one devastating death." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young alike. The end of days is near, but life always goes on.

A young Latin tutor—penniless and bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman. Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is just taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.

Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down—a magnificent leap forward from one of our most gifted novelists.

Accolades & Awards

National Book Critics Circle Award
2020
Family Life Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Medieval National Book Critics Circle Award Marriage England Heartfelt
Beautiful Storytelling • Emotional Depth • Expressive Narration • Historical Richness • Captivating Plot

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This author is a favorite. Her descriptive prose is delicious, her characters multi-dimensional yet straightforward, and choosing to never use the name Shakespeare reveals her total commitment to the story, not the subject.

Narrator was beyond wonderful!!! Brought the words to life.

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A stunning tale of grief and how a family deals with it in their own ways.

Gorgeous

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This was beautifully written. I just was captivated by the whole story and the beautiful voice of Jessie Buckley.

Jessie Buckleys narration is beautiful.

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I loved everything about this book and its reader. I was absolutely mesmerized. I listened almost nonstop over two days until the end.

The slow pace of the book, read by an outstanding actress, Jessie Buckley.

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This is a top favorite in my Audible library. I highly recommend this sensitive story on the loss of a much loved child.

Beautifully written and performed

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