Maggie O'Farrell: Hamnet (2020, Books on Tape)
Digital Audio
English language
Published July 21, 2020 by Books on Tape.
In 1580’s England, during the Black Plague a young Latin tutor falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman in this “exceptional historical novel” (The New Yorker) and best-selling winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life …
In 1580’s England, during the Black Plague a young Latin tutor falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman in this “exceptional historical novel” (The New Yorker) and best-selling winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, and whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down—a magnificent leap forward from one of our most gifted novelists. source: www.booksontape.com/book/612385/hamnet/
Mi segundo libro del año es Hamnet de Maggie O'Farrell. Y tengo que decir ¡que libro tan bueno! Decir que es una historia del hijo de Shakespeare no le hace justicia. El personaje principal de la historia es Agnes, su mamá, una mujer fuerte, idealista, enamorada del bosque, de sus hijos, del loco de su esposo. Todos sabemos en líneas generales que pasa, la pericia de la autora es contarnos una plausible idea del por qué, y del cómo.
Fucking hell. I put this off for years because I wasn’t sure I was ready for its sustained grief (and because as a one-time Shakespeare professor, I usually stay away from fiction about him). The grief is hard and circles everything. It’s not easy, but it’s beautiful and I’m glad I read it and I’ll be thinking about it for a long while.
Superb writing and a sad, sad, story.
La trama del libro queda perfectamente resumida en el breve párrafo que lo abre: "En la década de 1580, una pareja [...] tuvo tres hijos: Susanna y Hamnet y Judith, que eran gemelos. Hamnet, el niño, murió en 1590 a los once años. Cuatro años más tarde su padre escribió una obra de teatro titulada Hamlet".
Alrededor de esa trama, O'Farrel construye una narración minuciosa, penetrante y con la dosis justa de preciosismo centrada esos personajes. Sobre todo en Agnes, la madre, a la que convierte en un personaje complejo y carismático. No es ni mucho menos una novela histórica al uso, sí un relato cautivador sobre una familia y dos tragedias (una real, otra escrita).
Nota: si al principio te parece más morosa de la cuenta, dale tiempo. Merece la pena.
