A review by blairmahoney
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

5.0

Just announced as the winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction for 2020, this is a deserving winner. I've read a lot of books about Shakespeare, including fiction like Anthony Burgess' Nothing Like the Sun, but this nevertheless feels fresh and vital. O'Farrell focuses more on Anne Hathaway (here called Agnes) than she does her husband (who is never directly named in the novel), but the perspective shifts across a number of characters, including Hamnet himself, as it leads up to his death. This is a smart, feminist take on Shakespeare's world and family, informed by research but not beholden to it.