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As with books, there are certain movies that stay with you long after you finish watching them. While I watched many good films from 2025, Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao, stands out as an exceptional book-to-film adaptation and work of art. Irish actress Jessie Buckley’s Academy Award-winning performance as Agnes, the wife of Shakespeare, beautifully portrays life as a wife and mother in Elizabethan England.
The story follows Agnes, a free-spirited falconer and lover of nature, as she meets and falls in love with William Shakespeare, played by Paul Mescal, and they go on to have three children together. I really appreciated how the film centers Agnes’s experiences over Shakespeare’s, just as Maggie O’Farrell’s book Hamnet does. Shakespeare’s wife gets overshadowed in history by her famous husband, and this film captures her side of the story in such emotional and unforgettable ways. After Agnes encourages Shakespeare to pursue his playwriting aspirations in London, she navigates parenting her three children amidst a tense household she shares with her challenging in-laws. When her son Hamnet dies from the plague, her grief overflows from the page and screen. It’s tangible, heartbreaking, and it will stay with me.
For those like me who fell in love with the Hamnet movie, I’ve got a collection of novels below to check out next. Each one takes place in various historical eras and touches upon themes found in Hamnet, including motherhood, marriage, family drama, love, loss, and art.
5 Books to Read If You Loved Watching Hamnet
Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
This atmospheric historical novel by Laurie Lico Albanese involves complicated marriage dynamics as well as a woman’s relationship with an author of classic fiction. The story takes place in the early 1800’s as a young Scottish seamstress named Isobel Gamble arrives in Salem with her husband. When he abandons her to pick up a job as a medic on a passing ship, Isobel finds herself struggling to make a living and find her way in a new country. In the midst of all this upheaval, Isobel meets a man named Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Past Tense
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The Fisherman’s Gift by Julia R. Kelly
Motherhood and loss play such important roles in Hamnet, and these themes surface in this poignant story by Julia R. Kelly, too. In a tiny Scottish village in 1900, a boy washes to shore who looks just like a teacher named Dorothy’s son, who was lost at sea years prior. As the villagers try to find out where the boy came from, Dorothy agrees to look after him, but his similarities to her own lost son will soon stir up long-buried emotions within her.
The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson
Speaking of historical motherhood stories, this novel by Sadeqa Johnson takes place in the 1950’s and alternates between two different motherhood perspectives. In Philadelphia, a teen named Ruby aspires to be the first in her family to go to college, but things take a turn after she becomes unexpectedly pregnant from a love affair. When Eleanor Quarles arrives in D.C., she falls in love with a handsome college student. As she tries to fit in with his elite and wealthy Black D.C. family, Eleanor hopes that having a baby will make things easier.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
This compelling historical novel takes place in China during the fifteenth century, one century before the events of Hamnet. Like Hamnet, the story also draws inspiration from a real historical figure, Lady Tan, a physician during the Ming Dynasty. This novel also explores themes of marriage, health, medicine, and female agency. As Tan Yunxian learns about Chinese medicine from her grandmother, she faces the ups and downs of an arranged marriage, societal expectations, and her own desire to practice medicine.
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
As with Hamnet, Karen Joy Fowler’s historical novel combines family drama and tragedy with the world of theater and Shakespeare. Set in 1822, we follow the Booth family as they move to a farm in Baltimore and raise ten children under the unstable care of their father, Shakespearean actor Junius Booth. Like Hamnet’s family, especially considering his difficult grandparents, this family navigates volatile and turbulent behavior. As the Civil War nears, the Booth family gains the public’s notice in Baltimore’s theatrical society through a series of incredible successes and scandals.
Before You Say Fare Thee Well…
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, and the film adaptation, are truly incredible works of historical fiction. It’s the kind of story that catches you unexpectedly and immerses you fully within another era and into the hearts of the characters. If you’re looking for more historical fiction that will stay with you, check out Book Riot’s Best Historical Fiction Books of the Century So Far, or if you’d like more book-to-film adaptations, I recommend perusing our Adaptations Archives too. Fare thee well, book-to-film fans!
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