Welcome to the Book Review Book Club! Every month, we select a book to discuss with our readers. Last month, we read “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,” by Stephen Graham Jones. (You can also go back and listen to our episodes on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Wild Dark Shore” and “The Catch.”)
There’s an irony to Shakespeare as a cultural icon: Though he’s foundational to modern literature and theater, we know relatively little about him as a person. The details we do know make him even more mysterious. Maggie O’Farrell’s novel “Hamnet” is animated by a few of those cryptic historical notes:
“In the 1580s, a couple living on Henley Street, Stratford, had three children: Susanna, then Hamnet and Judith, who were twins.”
“The boy, Hamnet, died in 1596, aged 11.”
“Four years or so later, the father wrote a play called ‘Hamlet.’”
Those are the facts. But what do we make of them and how they shaped one of the world’s greatest writers? That’s exactly what “Hamnet” beautifully and powerfully explores.
When it was published in 2020, the novel received critical acclaim, and was named one of the Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the year. Now it is getting a second life with Chloé Zhao’s film adaptation, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, which will be released later this month.
No one should miss a chance to return to this beloved novel. That’s why in November, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “Hamnet.” We’ll be chatting about it on the Book Review podcast that airs on Nov. 28, and we’d love for you to join the conversation. Share your thoughts about the novel in the comments section of this article by Nov. 21, and we may mention your observations in the episode.
Here’s some related reading to get you started.
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Our review of “Hamnet”: “Right at the start, O’Farrell plants her flag. This novel will be about grief: how we experience it, how we respond to it, what it costs and whom it damages.” Read the full review here.
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Our podcast interview with Maggie O’Farrell: “The engine behind the book for me was always the fact that I think Hamnet has been overlooked and underwritten by history. I think he’s been consigned to a literary footnote. And I believe, quite strongly, that without him — without his tragically short life — we wouldn’t have the play ‘Hamlet.’ We probably wouldn’t have ‘Twelfth Night.’ As an audience, we are enormously in debt to him.” Listen to the full interview here.
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Our 2022 profile of Maggie O’Farrell, timed to the release of her novel “The Marriage Portrait,” about how she looks for stories hiding in plain sight: “The stories that are written in white are the ones that interest me.” Read the full profile here.
We can’t wait to discuss this novel with you.
The post Book Club: Read ‘Hamnet,’ by Maggie O’Farrell, With the Book Review appeared first on New York Times.
