From the 4 plus star rating all I can figure is that there are two different versions of this book. One is the 'luminous portrait of a marriage' promised by the blurb on the inside covers and the other is the overwrought novel of idle speculation I was unlucky enough to borrow from the library. ( )

This prize winning novel is a fictional retelling of the short life and death of William Shakespeare's only son. It contains two time tracks, starting with Hamnet's illness and death, with alternating chapters going back to his parents' marriage. For much of the novel, Hamnet's mother, here called Agnes (Anne) Hathaway is the dominant character, a semi-magical white witch character (for which there is no historical evidence). But the last third of the novel follows on from the young boy's death from plague, centring on his parents' contrasting reactions to his passing, expressing their grief in very different ways, Agnes by being unable to move or carry on with her day to day life, William by returning to London and throwing himself into his dramatic work. The other two Shakespeare children, Judith, Hamnet's identical twin, and the elder daughter Susannah, also come across clearly with distinct characters. The author's writing style is very evocative of the sights, sounds and smells of Elizabethan Stratford and (in brief at the end) London. I greatly enjoyed the novel, though I thought the descriptions of grief, while very evocative, were perhaps a little overdone, and was initially slightly confused by the rapidly changing timestreams. The close connection of the names of Shakespeare's only son and his most famous play, crucial to the novel's ending here, is not accepted by all historians, though. A powerful novel. ( )

Everyone is right. Why did I postpone it for so long? Beautiful book, the writing, the tale, the imagination. Thanks to all who kept recommending it to me.
The author's exposition of grief is extraordinary bringing a tear to my hardened eye.
So many quotations to savor, i.e. this of his pregnant wife: "His mind is traversed for a moment, by an image of her body in its current astonishing shape, as he saw it last night; limbs, neat rib cage, the spine a long indent down the back, a cart-track through snow, and then this perfectly rounded phere at the front. Like a woman who had swallowed the moon." ( )

Hamnet is written by Maggie O’Farrell.
This is a brilliantly, lovingly written book.
It is so emotional with quiet yet powerful, lyrically written words.
The writing seems ‘to transport’ one to the late 1500s in England. I was completely
caught up in the day-to-day currents of the the town and its inhabitants. So historically
and culturally accurate.
Hamnet “is a luminous portrait of a marriage, of a family ravaged by grief, and a boy
whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time.”
***** I am so glad I read this book. ( )

Little enough do we know about the Bard, William Shakespeare, but even less are we privy to in the lives of his most common family. A scant note about his father being an Alderman, the age gap with his wife, and the births of three children at Stratford is all that populates the historical eulogy of the Western world’s most famous writer. And yet his myth looms large centuries after his death, tempting researchers, writers, and enthusiasts to plumb the quilling depths to embellish the Elizabethan era in search of a lifelike Shakespearean family that comes off the page (and stage). O’Farrell may not be the first to be intrigued by the historical potential of the Bard, but she is one of the few who focuses the story away from its most famous player and brings to life the mysterious wife, his forebears, and the children who carried on his name. The story purports to be about Hamnet and Judith (being titled simply for the son who may have inspired Shakespeare’s most well-known play), but the whole family was so uniquely wrought that the story transcended my expectations entirely. Agnes was an easy favourite in the tale, as she plays the part of the surprisingly witchy girlfriend and matures into a woman who stands outside her time period alongside the husband who must leave their small town for London to forge the path that will bring him fame (and more importantly happiness). The pair are unexpected and illbegot according to the town, but their story is one that plays quietly towards Shakespeare’s own themes about troubled families, star-crossed lovers, and the risks one must take to forge a life. ( )