I n 1596, William Shakespeare’s 11-year-old child Hamnet passed away inside Stratford-upon-Avon. Four roughly age after, Shakespeare had written the fresh gamble felt by many people becoming their finest really works, providing their heartbreaking hero a version out of their dry son’s name. Almost five years afterwards however, Maggie O’Farrell was learning Hamlet at school and you will learned of the boy Hamnet, whose life has been little more than a good footnote within his dad’s biography. The newest vegetables regarding attraction planted thirty years ago has grown on her finest net’s demise plus the enough time-long-lasting ripples it delivered as a consequence of their family members.

Nevertheless the title are a bit misleading. Even though the web, their main reputation and you can conquering heart is the boy’s mommy, just who O’Farrell phone calls Agnes.