Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
This is a beautifully-told story of a young family in Stratford-upon-Avon, England in 1580. The characters and settings are elegantly sketched and their joys and troubles feel personal. The father of the family works at the theater in Shoreditch in London, and though he is never named, we recognize him, and the impact of the fate of his son, Hamnet, on his work.
Amazon’s Blurb: “England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young alike. The end of days is near, but life always goes on. A young Latin tutor—penniless and bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman. Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is just taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.”
