Sign In Join Now
User Accessibility
  • Increase Font

  • Invert Colours

Search for a Book Browse Books Menu
Hamnet Cover Play Sample

Sample may contain unsuitable content.

Stream / Download

Audiobook streaming provided by:

OverDrive Logo

Share this book:

Hamnet

AuthorMaggie O'Farrell

NarratorDaisy Donovan

Duration10h 31m

CategoriesAdult Fiction, Novels

PublisherHodder Headline

VersionUnabridged

  Save to Wish List
  Add to Favourites List

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

0 (0 Reviews)
0
0
0
0
0

Related Titles

Shuggie Bain Cover

Shuggie Bain

Author: Douglas Stuart

Shuggie Bain

Author Douglas Stuart

Narrator Angus King

Duration 17h 41m

This is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie'...

View Book
The Marriage Portrait Cover

The Marriage Portrait

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

The Marriage Portrait

Author Maggie O'Farrell

Narrator Genevieve Gaunt

Duration 13h 29m

Florence, the 1560s. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is qui...

View Book
So Lucky Cover

So Lucky

Author: Dawn O'Porter

So Lucky

Author Dawn O'Porter

Narrator Dawn O'Porter

Duration 9h 19m

Is anyone's life.... Beth shows that women really can have it all. Ruby lives life by her own rules. And then there's Lauren, living the dream. As perfect as it looks? Beth hasn't had sex in a year. Ruby feels like she's failing. Lauren's happiness is fake news. And it just takes one shocking event to make the truth come tumbling out...

View Book
Instructions For A Heatwave Cover

Instructions For A Heatwave

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

Instructions For A Heatwave

Author Maggie O'Farrell

Narrator Patricia Leventon

Duration 9h 25m

It's July 1976. In London, it hasn't rained for months, gardens are filled with aphids, water comes from a standpipe, and Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he's going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn't come back. The search for Robert brings Gretta's children - two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce - back...

View Book
This Must Be the Place Cover

This Must Be the Place

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

This Must Be the Place

Author Maggie O'Farrell

Narrator Thomas Judd, Penelope Rawlins

Duration 14h 28m

An addictive and unforgettable novel of a marriage in freefall, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2016. A Richard and Judy Pick 2017. A top 10 best seller, This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell crosses time zones and continents to reveal an extraordinary portrait of a marriage. A reclusive ex-film star living in the wilds of I...

View Book
This Mournable Body Cover

This Mournable Body

Author: Tsitsi Dangarembga

This Mournable Body

Author Tsitsi Dangarembga

Narrator Adenrele Ojo

Duration 11h 32m

Anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job, Tambudzai finds herself living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare. For reasons that include her grim financial prospects and her age, she moves to a widow's boarding house and eventually finds work as a biology teacher. But at every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself,...

View Book
Queen Bee Cover

Queen Bee

Author: Jane Fallon

Queen Bee

Author Jane Fallon

Narrator Jo Joyner

Duration 10h 8m

Brought to you by Penguin. Welcome to The Close - a beautiful street of mansions, where gorgeous Stella is the indisputable Queen Bee . . . It is here that Laura, seeking peace and privacy after her marriage falls apart, rents a tiny studio. Unfortunately, her arrival upsets suspicious Stella - who fears Laura has designs on her fianc‚, Al. W...

View Book
Everything I Never Told You Cover

Everything I Never Told You

Author: Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You

Author Celeste Ng

Narrator Cassandra Campbell

Duration 10h 8m

Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee; a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt, and Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to hold someone accountable. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who may b...

View Book
I Am, I Am, I Am Cover

I Am, I Am, I Am

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

I Am, I Am, I Am

Author Maggie O'Farrell

Narrator Daisy Donovan

Duration 6h 1m

A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. Shocking, electric, unforgettable, this is the extraordinary memoir from Costa Novel-Award winner and Sunday Times bestselling author Maggie O'Farr...

View Book
Real Life Cover

Real Life

Author: Brandon Taylor

Real Life

Author Brandon Taylor

Narrator Kevin R. Free

Duration 9h 25m

Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even wit...

View Book