
Hamnet
British novelist, born 1972. Won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020, the British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year in 2021 and the Costa Novel Award in 2010.
Hamnet is a 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell. It won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020 and the British Book Awards' Fiction Book of the Year in 2021.
In historical fiction, family saga
On 4 of the 13 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Maggie O'Farrell
- First published
- 2020
- Length
- 384 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Women's Prize for Fiction winner, 2020
- Walter Scott Prize shortlist, 2021
- British Book Awards Fiction winner, 2021
- Genre
- Historical fiction, Love story, Family saga
Is Hamnet worth reading?
4 of the 13 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the British Book Awards' Fiction Book of the Year and the Women's Prize for Fiction.
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year (winners and shortlists) (The Bookseller, 2021) | Winner | See the list |
| Walter Scott Prize (winners and shortlists) (Abbotsford Trust, 2021) | Shortlist | See the list |
| Waterstones Book of the Year (winners and shortlists) (Waterstones, 2012-) | Winner | See the list |
| Women's Prize for Fiction (winners and shortlists) (Women's Prize Trust, 2020) | Winner | See the list |
Best edition of Hamnet
The edition we link to is the Tinder Press paperback (2021), 384 pages.
- Publisher
- Tinder Press (paperback, 2021)
- Pages
- 384
- ISBN
- 9781472223821
How critics, prizes and readers rate Hamnet
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 53% of the points available on prize lists, against 17% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 0% on critics' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like Hamnet
If you liked Hamnet, try The Marriage Portrait, This Must Be the Place or Instructions for a Heatwave.


