Hamnet

Stunning. The writing is exquisite, immersive and compelling… deserves to win prizesThe story of Hamnet Shakespeare has been waiting in the shadows for over four hundred years. Maggie O’Farrell brings it dazzlingly, devastatingly, into the lightGrief and loss so finely written I could hardly bear to read itHeartstopping. 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 everBlisteringly brilliant… You’ll lap up this intricately told story of grief, love and the bond between twins * Cosmopolitan *[A] rich imagining of the lives of Shakespeare’s family enchants… O’Farrell’s remarkable novel bursts with life * Sunday Telegraph *A beautiful read. A devastating one. Intricate, and breathtakingly imaginative * Rachel Joyce *A bold undertaking. Beautifully imagined and written * Claire Tomalin *Richly sensuous…something special * Sunday Times *The novel of her career… everyone I know who has managed to get hold of a copy is absolutely in love with it * Observer *A staggeringly beautiful and unbearably poignant novel. O’Farrell is one of the most surprisingly quiet radicals in fiction * Scotsman *

Maggie O’Farrell is the author of HAMNET, Winner of the Women’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.