Hamnet

They lost their son, but they made his name immortal... When a struggling homeschooler, William Shakespeare, meets the energetic and free-spirited Agnes, they form a powerful and fateful bond. Their love brings three children into the world - the older Susanna and the younger twins Hamnet and Judith. But in 1596, a married couple living in late sixteenth-century Stratford-upon-Avon are hit hard by an unexpected tragedy - their only son dies suddenly at the age of eleven. The painful loss will deeply affect the family of the deceased boy and will also mark the relationship between William and Agnes. However, out of unimaginable sadness and a sense of hopelessness, four years later, through Shakespeare's pen, a work would be born that would go down in the history of theatre. The tragedy of Hamlet will become the source of the Elizabethan playwright's undying fame, but also a means for parents sharing a similar fate to come to terms with their bottomless grief. This unforgettable tale of love and pain became the UK bestseller of 2020 and won a number of major awards including the Women's Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Its extremely successful film adaptation, made by Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao and awarded two Golden Globes (for Best Film and Best Actress in the Drama category), is now available in domestic cinemas! "Too topical. inspiring. An exceptional historical novel." - The New Yorker "Spectacular and searing. A family saga so brimming with life, touched by magic and anchored in love..." - The Boston Globe "An extraordinary work. Hamnet vividly captures the life-changing intensity of motherhood in its myriad stages - from the pain of childbirth to the inconsolable grief of loss." - NPR "O'Farrell has managed to write a novel that balances between grounded facts and authorial invention. The author compensates for the predictability of the plot with a brilliant poetic style." - iLiteratura.cz "Maggie O'Farrell is a fine storyteller who, based on conjecture about Shakespeare's life, has created a simple but also beautiful, sad, fairy-tale-like and very 'English' story." - from reader reviews on Databazeknih.cz She's the one who notices him first. Hamnet looks at her, and his sister returns his gaze, her mouth slightly agape. She frowns as if she's about to say something, to complain to him about something. Then he turns to his grandmother, who is just ordering the girl to peel and finely chop the onions. Hamnet finds the heat in the kitchen unbearable - he can feel it breathing on him, like the fumes from the gates of hell. The wonder does not prevent him from entering, it fills the whole space, leaning its fierce bulk against the walls. Hamnet doesn't understand how these women can stand it. He runs his palm over his forehead, the edges of which seem to be glittering, and he will see, or so he thinks, a thousand candles in the dark, whose flames flicker out and burn brightly again, thin lights, orc candles. He blinks and they're gone that morning; the scene in front of his eyes looks like it did before. Grandma, a whore, onions, Sister, butter churns, a headless pheasant on the table, with scaly legs anxiously raised in the air, like he's scared, that he's gonna get them dirty, even though his head's been cut off and he's long dead. "Grandma?" Susanna says uncertainly, her eyes still fixed on her brother. Later, she would revisit the moment, see it in her mind many times, especially early in the morning when she woke up. My brother is standing between the doorframes. She will remember how pale and haggard he looked, completely different from usual, and his eyebrows were split. Would it have made a difference if she had brought it to Grandma's attention? If she mentioned it to either her or her mom? Would it have turned out differently? He won't know anymore, because at that moment he will only say: "Grandma?" - excerpt from the book