Club Book Episode 133 Maggie O’Farrell

Internationally acclaimed British novelist Maggie O’Farrell is the author behind eight bestselling novels. Readers and critics alike praise her “demonstrated mastery at depicting strained relationships, skewed family loyalties, and the just reachable light at the end of the tunnel” (Star Tribune). Standouts include her Betty Trask Award winning debut After You’d Gone (2000), Somerset Maugham Award winning The Distance Between Us (2004), and Costa Novel Award winning The Hand That First Held Mine (2010). O’Farrell also penned a memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am (2018), about a series of near-death experiences that have punctuated and added new meaning to her life. Her latest entry into this literary canon is a work of historical fiction. Hamnet explores the domestic life of William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway, and how the untimely death of the couple’s only son may have inspired one of the bard’s greatest plays. “Hamnet vividly captures the life-changing intensity of maternity in its myriad stages—from the pain of childbirth to the unassuageable grief of loss” (NPR).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download