Shannon Staub Book Club: "Hamnet"

This month we will be reading and discussing "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell.

A short, piercing, deeply moving novel about the death of Shakespeare's 11 year old son Hamnet--a name interchangeable with Hamlet in 15th century Britain--and the years leading up to the production of his great play. England, 1580. A young Latin tutor--penniless, bullied by a violent father--falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman--a wild creature who walks her family's estate with a falcon on her shoulder and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer. Agnes understands plants and potions better than she does people, but once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose gifts as a writer are just beginning to awaken when his beloved young son succumbs to bubonic plague.

This title is available through our catalog. It is also available as an eBook through CloudLibrary. Please visit our front desk or call 941-861-1744 to reserve a copy.

We will be meeting in-person in the Shannon Staub Library Conference Room, as well as virtually on Zoom. Register online to receive the log-in information for the Zoom session.