Study of grief over the death of Shakespeare’s young son from bubonic plague acclaimed by judges as a truly great novel
Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet, set in an England stalked by a plague that kills the young son of William Shakespeare, has won the Women’s prize for fiction.
A study of bereavement, O’Farrell’s eighth novel opens with the death of the 11-year-old boy, and delves into the relationship between Hamnet’s mother, Agnes, and her famous playwright husband.
