Hamnet
Read the bestselling book before you see the award winning film
Published on 23. October 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-1-0354-3133-5 (ISBN)
Description
The no. 1 bestseller that inspired the major film starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal
'A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell
?
A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.
The untold love story that inspired Shakespeare's greatest masterpiece.
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 tells the powerful story of Agnes and Will, and of the son whose life has been all but forgotten, but who inspired one of the greatest plays ever written.
??Fall in love with HAMNET this year ??
'HAMNET is a feast for the senses'
'One of my favourite books of the year. Simply gorgeous'
'Words fail me... this story had me feeling everything'
'I read and reread passages throughout this exceptional novel'
'A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell
?
A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.
The untold love story that inspired Shakespeare's greatest masterpiece.
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 tells the powerful story of Agnes and Will, and of the son whose life has been all but forgotten, but who inspired one of the greatest plays ever written.
??Fall in love with HAMNET this year ??
'HAMNET is a feast for the senses'
'One of my favourite books of the year. Simply gorgeous'
'Words fail me... this story had me feeling everything'
'I read and reread passages throughout this exceptional novel'
Reviews / Votes
Stunning. The writing is exquisite, immersive and compelling... deserves to win prizes 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 light Grief and loss so finely written I could hardly bear to read it 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 ever Blisteringly 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 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Headline Publishing Group
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 124 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-0354-3133-5 (9781035431335)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2020
1st Edition
Tinder Press
€5.49
Available for download
Person
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.