A stunning new departure for Maggie O'Farrell's fiction, HAMNET is the heart-stopping story behind Shakespeare's most famous play. On asummer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere forhelp. 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 one of the children will notsurvive the week. Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famousplaywright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel andits mistress; flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and aglovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman heloves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of aboy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.
