Book guide
Hamnet
A luminous historical novel about a family bound by love and shattered by the death of a child.
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About Hamnet
TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART. 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 is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.
Reading signals
- Spice
- Light
- Darkness
- Balanced
- Pacing
- Balanced
Content warnings
- child death
- grief
- illness
- plague
- parental grief
- domestic abuse
- sexual content
