It starts with an eleven-year-old boy, Hamnet, desperately seeking help for his twin sister, Judith, who has suddenly fallen ill with a fever. It is 1596 in Stratford-upon-Avon, and their father is away in London, their mother is tending her beehives across town, their elder sister and grandma are out; and their drunk of a grandfather refuses to be disturbed.
Cut to fifteen years earlier, and the father is a callow, though well-educated, youth giving lessons in Latin to two sons of a gentleman farmer. Neither tutor nor pupils are concentrating; the tutor is more interested in the person crossing the farmyard with a hawk on their wrist.
The two narratives play out, the earlier one building through courtship, pregnancy, marriage and family life to catch up with the later, culminating in a deathbed vigil. The aftermath provides a third, uninterrupted narrative going forward.
The writing is lyrical, moving when necessary. The familial relationships – husband/wife, mother/children, son/father, wife/mother-in-law, brother/sister – are portrayed through subtle but telling scenes, with words not said but meaning clear.
Part one, with the split narrative, is enjoyable reading, even the tension filled climax. Part two is more difficult due to the overwhelming sadness but remains compulsive.
Interestingly, no
surnames are used, and the main man – tutor, husband, father of the twins –
gets not even a first name. But we know who he is and, by the end of the book,
possibly why he wrote a play called Hamlet.