Hamnet (novel)

Hamnet is a 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell. It is a fictional account of William Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, who died at age eleven in 1596, focusing on his parents' grief. In Canada, the novel was published under the title Hamnet & Judith.

In 2020, the book won the Women's Prize for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction; that December, it was also chosen as Waterstones' Book Of The Year. The following year, it was named "Novel of the Year" at the Dalkey Literary Awards, was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. It was described in Literary Review as "a rich story by any stretch of the imagination, and O'Farrell's stretches much, much further than most of ours."

Adaptations
In 2023, a stage adaptation of the novel by Lolita Chakrabarti premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, re-opening the Swan Theatre after the COVID-19 pandemic and refurbishment. In September, the piece transferred to the Garrick Theatre in London, directed by Erica Whyman and starring Madeleine Mantock as Agnes Hathaway, Tom Varey as William Shakespeare and Ajani Cabey as Hamnet. It was scheduled to play until at least February 2024.

A film adaptation produced in part by Amblin Partners and directed by Chloé Zhao was announced in April 2023, with Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in talks to star in the film.

Reception
Hamnet received mostly positive reviews from critics. According to Book Marks, the book received "rave" reviews based on 24 mainstream critic reviews with 19 being "rave", 3 being "positive" and 2 being "mixed". In Books in the Media, a site that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (4.27 out of 5) from the site which was based on 18 critic reviews.