Hamnet (Literature & Fiction)

Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell) is set up as one continuous listen: cover, runtime, and a chapter list on the same page.

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.n 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.n 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 lasting vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.n

That is the whole offer: the full recording, a chapter index, and a player that does not ask you to sign up.