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By (author) Maggie O’Farrell Short description/annotation:
WINNER: WOMEN”S PRIZE FOR FICTIONWINNER: FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR, BRITISH BOOK AWARDSWINNER: BOOKS ARE MY BAG READER”S CHOICE AWARDAS FEATURED ON BBC2”S BETWEEN THE COVERSSHORTLISTED: AN POST IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR, WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION
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WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN”S PRIZE FOR FICTION – THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER 2021”Richly sensuous… something special” The Sunday Times”A thing of shimmering wonder” David MitchellTWO 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 sudden 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 Hamnet will not survive the week. Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.
Review quote:Stunning.The writing is exquisite, immersive and compelling… deserves to win prizesReview quote:The story of Hamnet Shakespeare has been waiting in the shadows for over four hundred years. Maggie O”Farrell brings it dazzlingly, devastatingly, into the lightReview quote:Grief and loss so finely written I could hardly bear to read itReview quote:Heartstopping. Hamnet does for the Shakespeare story what Jean Rhys did for Jane Eyre, inhabiting, enlarging and enriching it in ways that will alter the reader”s view for everReview quote:Blisteringly brilliant… You”ll lap up this intricately told story of grief, love and the bond between twinsReview quote:[A] rich imagining of the lives of Shakespeare”s family enchants… O”Farrell”s remarkable novel bursts with lifeReview quote:A beautiful read. A devastating one. Intricate, and breathtakingly imaginativeReview quote:A bold undertaking. Beautifully imagined and writtenReview quote:Richly sensuous…something specialReview quote:The novel of her career… everyone I know who has managed to get hold of a copy is absolutely in love with itReview quote:A staggeringly beautiful and unbearably poignant novel. O”Farrell is one of the most surprisingly quiet radicals in fictionBiographical note:Maggie O”Farrell is the author of HAMNET, Winner of theWomen”s Prize for Fiction 2020, and the memoir I AM, I AM, I AM, both Sunday Times no. 1 bestsellers.Her novels include AFTER YOU”D GONE, MY LOVER”S LOVER, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE and THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT, which was shortlisted for the Women”s Prize. She is also the author of three books for children, WHERE SNOW ANGELS GO, THE BOY WHO LOST HIS SPARK and WHEN THE STAMMER CAME TO STAY. She lives in Edinburgh.Review quote: previous work:A masterpiece. Historical fiction at its finestA rich imagining of the lives of Shakespeare”s family enchants… O”Farrell”s remarkable novel bursts with life – Sunday TelegraphStunning… immersive and compellingBlisteringly brilliant – CosmopolitanWe wi
