Paperback, 372 pages
English language
Published Dec. 31, 2019 by Tinder Press.
Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare's most enigmatic play, Hamnet is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.
Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.
Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.
Filled with dazzling prose but not in the sense that you need a dictionary, except to understand 16th century fashion. I am fascinated by the idea that the premise here is that an author can surprise and delight in plain English about that language’s most famous writer.
Maggie O'Farrell ens regala una magnífica biografia novelada de William Shakespeare, plena de fantasia i de moments onírics. La mort del seu fill Hamnet als 11 anys és l'eix central del llibre, però l'autèntica protagonista és la seva dona Agnes, que fa de pal de paller de tota la història i també del matrimoni amb Shakespeare. Una dona amb poders quasi sensorials, amb coneixements ancestrals en medicina natural, en herbes i altres remeis, i capaç de sentir presències fantasmals i de percebre els sentiments dels altres només agafar-los les mans. Al final, viuen els anhels d'eternitat que tots posem en els nostres fills i filles.
I generally don't like historical fiction. My last taste of it was Wolf Hall, which I despised. I'm not a romantic either. I should've hated this book, but I didn't. I loved it.
The characters of Agnes and Hamnet are brilliantly imagined, the rest maybe not so much but this story isn't about the others. The prose is beautiful without being overly pretentious or enigmatic.
Trigger warnings: plague; death of a child.
Superb writing and a sad, sad, story.
La trama del libro queda perfectamente resumida en el breve párrafo que lo abre: "En la década de 1580, una pareja [...] tuvo tres hijos: Susanna y Hamnet y Judith, que eran gemelos. Hamnet, el niño, murió en 1590 a los once años. Cuatro años más tarde su padre escribió una obra de teatro titulada Hamlet".
Alrededor de esa trama, O'Farrel construye una narración minuciosa, penetrante y con la dosis justa de preciosismo centrada esos personajes. Sobre todo en Agnes, la madre, a la que convierte en un personaje complejo y carismático. No es ni mucho menos una novela histórica al uso, sí un relato cautivador sobre una familia y dos tragedias (una real, otra escrita).
Nota: si al principio te parece más morosa de la cuenta, dale tiempo. Merece la pena.
