#Maggie O’Farrell

[luxe-pauvre]

She grows up with a hidden, private flame insider her: it licks at her, warms her, warns her. You need to get away, the flame tells her. You must.

Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet

[whilereadingandwalking]

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell is a beautiful historical fiction novel about a boy who his father, William Shakespeare, made immortal. It's extremely well-written, a fast read, and emotional. Scholars have talked for years about how Shakespeare was impacted by the death of his young son Hamnet, and tried to unpack how the haunted play of Hamlet could be a tribute to his son's ghost. O'Farrell tugs at that question until it becomes a really gorgeous story of the relationships between parents and child, of sickness and death's cruel suddenness, of grief and superstition.

One of my favorite small things about it is that you simply wouldn't need to know anything about Shakespeare to fall into this story and its vivid richness. In fact, at no point does O'Farrell mention his last name, to keep the lens zoomed-in, to keep the story focused on family, parents, marriage, love. I love that O'Farrell made Agnes this witchy outcast, a woman who can read people so deeply, and how it then backfires on her when she doesn't read something quite right. From the very first moment, the book makes it clear what is going to happen, but the story stretches towards and away from that event like a taut guitar string in a way that makes the entire thing sing.

Content warnings for domestic and physical abuse, g-slur, mental illness, miscarriage, death, grief

[paperbaacks]

HAMNET IS GETTING A MOVIE???

[brian-in-finance]

Twitter 📚 Event Info 🎟️ Tickets

Trespasses

Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between allegiance to community and a dangerous passion.

Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family's pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who's made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment - Michael is not only Protestant but older, and married - Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites. Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, and everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.

As tender as it is unflinching, Trespasses is a heart-pounding, heart-rending drama of thwarted love and irreconcilable loyalties, in a place what you come from seems to count more than what you do, or whom you cherish.

Goodreads

Remember when we learned we may hear an accent much like Ma’s on 24 May when Caitríona reads from Trespasses? ☘️

[aforcedelire]

Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell

Été 1596. Dans la campagne anglaise, une petite fille tombe gravement malade. Son jumeau Hamnet part chercher de l’aide. Leur grande sœur Susanna est introuvable ; leur mère Agnes cueille des plantes médicinales dans les champs alentour ; leur père est à Londres pour son travail. Et tous sont inconscients de cette maladie funeste qui plane au-dessus de leurs têtes…

J’ai eu un peu de mal à rentrer dedans, mais alors une fois fait, j’ai vraiment beaucoup aimé. L’ambiance m’a pas mal rappelé Les Sorcières de Pendle de Stacey Halls, alors forcément, j’étais conquise. Dans ce roman, Maggie O’Farrell dresse le portrait d’Hamnet, ce jeune garçon que la Peste a enlevé trop tôt, dont la terrible perte a ensuite inspiré Shakespeare pour sa tragédie Hamlet.

Car ici, c’est bien de la famille du dramaturge dont on parle, et lui-même n’est jamais nommé, n’apparaît qu’au second plan. C’est simplement un homme qui comme tant d’autres travaille dans un théâtre à Londres. J’ai beaucoup aimé les personnages, surtout celui d’Agnes, la mère. Si farouche, si libre. En marge de la société, parlant le langage des plantes et décortiquant leurs secrets, elle aurait aisément pu passer pour sorcière. Un personne fort comme on les aime ! L’écriture est aussi très spéciale, on alterne entre le présent et le passé, entre la maladie des jumeaux et l’histoire de leurs parents, leur rencontre, leur mariage… le tout de façon vraiment bien écrit.

Et puis surtout, c’est un très beau livre sur le deuil, sur la famille, sur l’amour. Hamnet était la pierre triangulaire de la famille, et sa disparition a affecté tout le monde. C’était beau et puissant.

30/06/2024 - 07/07/2024

[cto10121]

It’s the same name. Hamnet is just an alternative spelling because the Elizabethans did not have standardized spelling.

Shakespeare’s son was literally named Hamlet.

[shakespearenews]

The set’s backdrop is shaped like an A, and in a whimsical piece of blocking, Agnes and William spend their wedding night on the floor above its middle point. She tells William she cannot sleep because the house is shaped like the letter—she has told us previously it’s the only written letter her father taught her to recognize—to which he asks, “Do you know that is the foremost reason I love you?” She replies, “That I cannot sleep in the air?”

[brucklethings]

“A silver, crepuscular glimmer lies low on the floor. She tiptoes through it, fancying that her feet will become stained by its luminous glow. That by morning she will discover she has left tell-tale bright footprints behind.”

— Maggie O’Farrell, The Marriage Portrait

[geekpopnews]

Adaptação de “Hamnet” terá Paul Mescal como William Shakespeare

O livro "Hamnet" ganhará uma adaptação dirigida por Chloé Zhao e contará com Paul Mescal e Kessie Buckley no elenco. Confira mais detalhes em nossa matéria. #PaulMescal #Hamnet #WilliamShakespeare

No último dia 27, a adaptação do livro “Hamnet” de Maggie O’Farrell ganhou novidades, confirmando Paul Mescal como William Shakespeare no filme. A obra explora a luta de Agnes, esposa de Shakespeare, ao lidar com a morte de seu filho, Hamnet. A narrativa revela como esse evento influenciou a criação da icônica obra “Hamlet”. Dirigida por Chloé Zhao, vencedora do prêmio de melhor direção por…

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Instructions for a Heatwave | Author: Maggie O’Farrell | Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (2013)

[luxe-pauvre]

She thinks of the seams of a glove, running up and down and over each finger, keeping close the skin that does not belong to the wearer. How a glove covers and fits and restrains the hand. She thinks of the skins in the storeroom, pulled and stretched almost - but not quite - to tearing or breaking point. She thinks of the tools in the workshop, for cutting and shaping, pinning and piercing. She thinks of what must be discarded and stolen from the animal in order to make it useful to a glove-maker: the heart, the bones, the soul, the spirit, the blood, the viscera. A glover will only ever want the skin, the surface, the outer layer. Everything else is useless, an inconvenience, an unnecessary mess. She thinks of the private cruelty behind something as beautiful and perfect as a glove.

Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet

[bookishlyread]

2023 Reading, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

[d3mon-ology]

God had need of him, the priest says to her, taking her hand after the service one day.

She turns on him, almost snarling, filled with the urge to strike him. I had need of him, she wants to say, and your God should have bided his time.

— Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet

[brian-in-finance]

Women's Prize for Fiction: Shortlist Book Club Online

Our much-loved online shortlist events are back! Join Kate Mosse, the six Women's Prize shortlisted authors and a host of celebrated actors.

Date and time

Mon, 22 May 2023 7:00 - Wed, 24 May 2023 8:30 BST

Location

Online

Welcome to the 2023 Women’s Prize Shortlist Book Club online! Over three evenings in May, join host Kate Mosse, the six shortlisted authors and a line-up of celebrated actors for a joyous celebration of women’s writing.

Featuring readings from the shortlisted novels, candid chat from the authors, and your chance to shape the conversation, this is the ultimate book club.

This year we want you to get even more involved! From all over the world, you’ve been reading along with the judges and discovering this year’s books – and now it’s time to have your say. Share your questions for the authors – or simply an interesting take on one of the books – and it may be featured on the night. Either enter your question when prompted on the order form or email it to info@womensprizeforfiction.co.uk, with the subject line SHORTLIST BOOK CLUB.

And if you’d like to delve into the books’ themes ahead of the event, look out for our bespoke reading guides, which will be shared with all ticketholders ahead of the event.

Full line-up details will be announced over the coming months. And in the meantime, get reading, stock up on snacks and settle in for three nights of inspiring book chat with readers from around the world…

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Each shortlisted book will be paired with a world-class actor, who will perform an exclusive reading.

Monday 22nd May 2023, 7.00pm BST: Barbara Kingsolver + Priscilla Morris, chaired by Kate Mosse, featuring readings from actors to be announced

Tuesday 23rd May 2023, 7.00pm BST: Maggie O'Farrell + Jacqueline Crooks, chaired by Kate Mosse, featuring readings from Lashana Lynch and another actor to be announced

Wednesday 24th May 2023, 7.00pm BST: Louise Kennedy + Laline Paull, chaired by Kate Mosse, featuring readings from Caitríona Balfe and another actor to be announced

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See this time zone converter to check your local live streaming time.

You can buy a single night ticket for £10 or get access to all three nights for £25. All tickets include a catch-up link.

Once you have bought a ticket, on each day of the programme you will receive an automatic Eventbrite email containing a new Zoom link allowing you to access that night's event. If you are unable to attend live, you will receive an email with the viewing link the day after the live event, so you can watch on catch up.

Following the shortlist announcement in April, you will have the option to purchase the shortlisted books as a ticket add-on, with an exclusive discount offer courtesy of our retail partner Bookshop.org.

The Women’s Prize Trust’s mission is to change the world through books by women, opening up pathways into reading and writing for the storytellers and booklovers of tomorrow. When booking your Women’s Prize LIVE ticket, you’ll be invited to add a £5, £10 or £20 donation to your ticket. Every donation contributes towards our work with underrepresented writers and readers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Refunds are available up to 48 hours before the day of each event.

From £11.18

Get Tickets

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Remember… Caitríona will be reading on Wednesday, 24 May.

[thehappyscavenger]

Books Read in April 2023

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

A BANGER. I was recommended this after I mentioned to someone I head read Light Perpetual. It’s such a good book. Set in NYC in the 1700s a mysterious British man rolls into town with a ton of money. Is he a scammer? Is he just rich? Who knows! Mysterious and wonderful and FUN.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Oooh boy, did not like this one. O’Farrell writes a fictionalized version of the life of Lucrezia Medici, who was also the subject of Robert Browning’s poem My Last Duchess. The characterization of her early years and then the way O’Farrell writes her later doesn’t really match. Also there’s a really grotesque final twist I could see coming from a million miles away but is like...morally disturbing and she ignores the complexity of it completely! Disappointing. 

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

I really struggled to see why this is such a classic and I guess for the time it must have been pretty progressive. The novel is historical fiction loosely based on the life of the first Bishop of New Mexico and how he struggled to establish his congregation. It’s a set of very loose stories really, each very brief. But the way she describes the indigenous and Latino people who populated this area is really offensive. It’s not like the Catholic church was all noble and meek. They did horrible things and were terribly disrespectful. This white washes a lot. 

Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White

Problematic Catholic book part deux. I went into this blind and I regret everything. It’s basically a passion book set in Australia about a group of loosely connected people in a small (fictionalized) town. They all see religious visions of a chariot and one of the characters is Christ re-incarnated. 

INCREDIBLY anti-semetic. I don’t think White was trying to be but wow does this play into offensive tropes about Jewish people and the Holocaust. One of the characters is a German-Jewish man who sort of meekly accepts his fate. It’s horrible. Do not recommend. It was actually darkly funny to read this after reading the Passenger by Ulrich Boschwitz. Because both men write about German Jews living through Kristelnacht and the takes couldn’t be more different. 

Do not recommend. A sour note to end April on.