Hamnet

I am dead:
Thou livest; .
... draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story
Hamlet, Act V, scene ii

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell - A historical novel origin story of William Shakespeare and his play Hamlet, this is the fourth plague novel I have read in 2020 (The Plague by Albert Camus, Severance by Lin Ma, and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel) and I think my favorite. It was refreshing to read an origin story these days not of the comic book variety. The novel sets the stage: "In the 1580s, a couple living on Henley Street, Stratford, had three children: Susanna, then Hamnet and Judith, who were twins. The boy, Hamnet, died in 1956, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the father wrote a play called Hamlet." While the names Hamnet and Hamlet the records show in this time and place were interchangeable, and then tragedy and wonder ensues.

Our Assessment: B+, The New York Times has this as one of their 10 best books of 2020, Tyler Cowen also loved it. I thought it was great too.