Nel Nome del Figlio by Maggie O'Farrell

 Nel Nome del Figlio

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell is an intense story that will conquer all of you, in particular if you like William Shakespeare and his works.

I confess that you won't remain indifferent: a story like this one is terribly intense: the departure of a son or a daughter is the biggest sufferance that two parents can experience.

Agnes, the girlfriend of William Shakespeare, at the time not so famous but a teacher and someone who had still to find his place in this world, was a weird creature; someone who guessed illnesses, future of people and for this reason considered a sort of witch by the locals.

William thought that her being so wild, her being so unique was more than sufficient for falling in love with her; when Agnes touched for the first time William was like to enter in many different worlds, all beauty, colored, and she understood that was falling in love for this complexity.

Once married, Agnes understands, although they have had their first child Susanna, that her husband can't continue to live in Stratford; she suggests him the life of London; and William leaves, all excited, for good. His family had a business; they sold gloves, but what attracted the most William once in London was being part of the theather, writing down comedies or tragedies, creating a company.

Agnes spends most of the time alone and when the other babies are born, two twins, Hamnet and Judith, William is not yet arrived home.

She is alone and she knows that this choice, the one of "setting free" from this domestic environment her husband has been wanted by her, so she shouldn't complain. 

But, she does. 

She does because she notices that when there are difficulties William is not there, in that place that keeps him so unhappy, but in London, happy, cheerful, and pragmatic. William lived in a little tiny place, with few essential things for a living. A table, a desk, a bed. That's it. No luxuries for William but a spartan existence dictated by rythms of work pretty strong.

It's a day like another one, yes: Hamnet and Judith are alone, in their house. They are surrounded by servants, a lot of family members, but strangely that day there is no one. Hamnet notices that the sister is not fine. She decides to go to bed; she becomes more sick and more sick every seconds that passes by; Hamnet rushes to the house of the doctor after having searched for his mother, granny, sister...

When Agnes returns home understands immediately the gravity of the situation: plague! It's the plague.

Oh my...She's more than sure that Judith will die.

She will die because the weakest one, the one with a constant necessity of help: they could not afford for a living in London because Judith couldn't survive at long in that city considering her health conditions.

She will die, because she did not have these two babies in the forest, but at home. She will die.

While Agnes is sleeping, exhausted, Hamnet feels that he is not fine, as well; he understands that it's plague and he wants to save the existence of Judith. Judith musn't die. She must live, she must become a woman, she must have her existence.

He will take the place of her sister, as they did in too many other occasions. They are twin and they will be always connected; he will cheat death, and death will capture him, not his sister.

When Agnes discoveres that Judith is coping well with plague is so happy, but then she sees Hamnet...Hamnet, the strongest one; Hamnet the one she hasn't never thought that could have met any problems at all in the existence; the one she hadn't overprotected, because, simply, there wasn't any kind of necessity.

Plague will kill Hamnet and it is strong what happens after; the preparation of the body, the arrival of William, the sadness, the life that will continue for everyone but not for Hamnet, not for their son, immortally a kid, without the possibility of becoming an adult.

William leaves after the funeral. He must return to London for not become crazy by all that pain. 

One day Agnes understands that William has written a tragedy called Hamlet. At first, she is simply horrified. Agnes doesn't read and writes just few things, without a proper logical order.

She goes to London for attending the show and there, she recognizes that this one is the only possible tribute for keeping alive, and forever their beloved son.

The book is articulated starting with a first chapter that will introduce us the story of Hamnet and the second one the love-story between William and Agnes and so on; you can decide of reading at first all the chapters involving the story of Hamnet and in a second phase the ones of Agnes and William or you can maintain the reading in the way proposed by the book.

It is one of the best books I have read. Maggie has a wonderful writing-style, in grade of penetrate in the most hidden recess of the mind, presenting us strong portraits of human conditions and feelings.

I also found interesting the geographically distant but loving relationship between William and Agnes and the way it has been lived with the time by the two protagonists. A very modern one!

Highly recommended.

I thank Giunti Editore for the physical copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori