Historical Fiction -- 5 stars
William Shakespeare, whose name is never once mentioned in this book, marries an eccentric country woman and starts a family in a home shared with his overbearing tradesman father. He leaves his family in Stratford-upon-Avon as he finds his way to London and his true life's work. When the plague touches his family, it inspires one the bard's most famous plays. ----- Mr. Shakespeare is a semi-background character in this beautifully written story that focuses instead on his wife, Agnes, who is so fully realized that I felt she was someone I had always known and loved. Her daily life and that of her family fill about half of the book in a comfortable and satisfying way, but it is the period following the loss of Hamnet that seared my heart. When Ms. O'Farrell writes of a mother's loss, it is the raw cry of grief's own soul sounding in a voice so heartbreaking and reverently beautiful it will leave you breathless. In the final pages, Agnes meets her playwright husband's own grief in the opening scenes of a performance of Hamlet. It is a viewpoint that will forever change the way I look at that play.
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