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Why it matters
O’Farrell makes maternal knowledge, plague, and grief central to literary history.
2020 selection · Literary fiction
Hamnet
Women’s Prize for Fiction · Winner NPR Books We Love · Recommendation The New York Times — 10 Best Books · Recommendation
In Stratford, Agnes and her playwright husband build a family shattered by their son Hamnet’s death. The novel imagines the domestic life surrounding Hamlet.
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Read this if…
You want sensory historical fiction about marriage, loss, and art.
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Ideas inside
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