9 best-selling novels books like Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Cover of Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Hamnet

By: Maggie O'Farrell

4.20

Format: 372 pages, Hardcover

Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare'…

"He has, Anges sees, done what any father would wish to do, to exchange his child’s suffering for his own, to take his place, to offer himself up in his child’s stead so that the boy might live."

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

"And there, by the fire, held in the arms of his mother, in the room in which he learnt to crawl, to eat, to walk, to speak, Hamnet takes his last breath. He draws it in, he lets it out. Then there is silence, stillness. Nothing more."

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

"Ahora esa persona se ha perdido para siempre. Va a la deriva, no reconoce su propia vida. Está desamarrada, extraviada. Es una persona que llora si no encuentra un zapato, si cuece la sopa más de lo debido o tropieza con un cacharro. Las cosas pequeñas la deshacen. Ya no hay certezas, nada es seguro."

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

"Ahora esa persona se ha perdido para siempre. Va a la deriva, no reconoce su propia vida. Está desamarrada, extraviada. Es una persona que llora si no encuentra un zapato, si cuece la sopa más de lo debido o tropieza con un cacharro. Las cosas pequeñas la deshacen. Ya no hay certezas, nada es seguro."

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

If you liked the novels plot in Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell , here is a list of 9 books like this:

1. Foster

By: Claire Keegan

3.92

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when s… read more

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's Foster book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

Cover of Trust by Hernan Diaz

2. Trust

By: Hernan Diaz

3.83

Format: 402 pages, Hardcover

10 hours, 21 minutes From an award-winning chronicler of our nation's history and its legends co… read more

Similar categories in Hernan Diaz's Trust book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Where there's a ventriloquist, there's a dummy."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

"Chaos is a vortex that spins faster with each thing it swallows."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

"Silence between 2 is always shared. But 1 of the 2 owns it and shares it with the other."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

"Sleeplessness kept claiming her nights, and she used books as shields against the onslaught of her abstract terrors."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

Cover of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

3. Small Things Like These

By: Claire Keegan

4.18

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal me… read more

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"Always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people."

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"for people were bound, he knew, to reveal not only themselves, but what they knew, in conversation"

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"And then the nights came on and the frosts took hold again, and blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees off those who still knelt to say the rosary."

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"When he reached the yard gate and found the padlock seized with frost, he felt the strain of being alive and wished he had stayed in bed, but he made himself carry on and crossed to a neighbour’s hou…"

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

Cover of Prophet Song by Paul    Lynch

4. Prophet Song

By: Paul Lynch

4.10

Format: 259 pages, Kindle Edition

A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internat… read more

Similar categories in Paul Lynch's Prophet Song book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"people are entitled to some small moment of peace."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"the child absorbing the mother’s trauma and storing it in his body for later use,"

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"... time is at once addition and subtraction, time adds one day to the next and always takes away from what's left..."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"...knowing how it is so that all boys grow up and pull away from home to unmake the world in the guise of making it, nature decrees it so."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

Cover of Shuggie Bain by Douglas   Stuart

5. Shuggie Bain

By: Douglas Stuart

4.31

Format: 430 pages, Hardcover

Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who sp… read more

Similar categories in Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • audiobook
"Rain was a natural state of Glasgow. It kept the grass green and the people pale and bronchial."

-Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

"Opposite the gates was a low concrete building. Dozens of men were spilling out of its windowless structure and stood in dark clumps on the Pit Road. At first it looked like they were leaving chapel,…"

-Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

Cover of La mala costumbre by Alana S. Portero

6. La mala costumbre

By: Alana S. Portero

4.55

Format: 252 pages, Kindle Edition

Narrada desde una singular y desgarradora voz en primera persona, La mala costumbre recorre la adol… read more

Similar categories in Alana S. Portero's La mala costumbre book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • fiction
"Cuando reímos con ganas no tenemos edad, lo hacemos igual durante toda nuestra vida y puede adivinarse en nuestra mueca la niña que fuimos o la anciana que seremos."

-Alana S. Portero, La mala costumbre

Cover of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

7. Tom Lake

By: Ann Patchett

3.99

Format: 309 pages, Hardcover

In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again prov… read more

Similar categories in Ann Patchett's Tom Lake book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"You can’t pretend this [Covid] isn’t happening,"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"In the summer the pear trees were fine. In the summer, all that is hideous about a pear tree is hidden by leaves and pears. But once those disguises were removed they were nothing but acres of murder…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"Hazel, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something important, you need to be brave.' I then explained to the dog how I have told myself for so many years that my career fell apart because I wasn't …"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cu…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

Cover of The Covenant of Water by Abraham   Verghese

8. The Covenant of Water

By: Abraham Verghese

4.45

Format: 724 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial ep… read more

Similar categories in Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of James by Percival Everett

9. James

By: Percival Everett

4.54

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • audiobook
Cover of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

10. Piranesi

By: Susanna Clarke

4.23

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls … read more

Similar categories in Susanna Clarke's Piranesi book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"In my mind are all the tides, their seasons, their ebbs and their flows."

-Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

"May your Paths be safe, your Floors unbroken and may the House fill your eyes with Beauty."

-Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

"The House is valuable because it is the House. It is enough in and of Itself. It is not the means to an end."

-Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

"It does not matter that you do not understand the reason. You are the Beloved Child of the House. Be comforted. And I am comforted."

-Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

Cover of In Memoriam by Alice Winn

11. In Memoriam

By: Alice Winn

4.53

Format: 382 pages, Hardcover

A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during a time of war. It'… read more

Similar categories in Alice Winn's In Memoriam book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"It’s intimate."

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

"Call me Sidney,"

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

"Where’s the rest of it?"

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

"Do you believe in magic?"

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

Cover of North Woods by Daniel       Mason

12. North Woods

By: Daniel Mason

4.15

Format: 372 pages, Hardcover

A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those … read more

Similar categories in Daniel Mason's North Woods book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James   McBride

13. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

4.00

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

14. Hello Beautiful

By: Ann Napolitano

4.16

Format: 416 pages, Kindle Edition

An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person wh… read more

Similar categories in Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"The child inside Julia lay wide-eyed in the dark, knowing that she was Jo, but only because Sylvie was Beth."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You and your sisters have so many reference points, such a dense history," William said. "I never get used to it."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"She was Julia's wild hair, she was the lake her husband had once been carried out of, and no matter what happened next, she was love."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You’re depressed, not crazy. It’s not insane to be depressed in this world. It’s more sane than being happy. I never trust those upbeat individuals who grin no matter what’s going on. Those are the o…"

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

Cover of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

15. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

By: Gabrielle Zevin

4.15

Format: 401 pages, Hardcover

In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative p… read more

Similar categories in Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Friendship,"

-Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

"How I will miss the horses."

-Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

"You try again. You fail better."

-Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

"There are no ghosts, but up here"

-Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Cover of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

16. Yellowface

By: R.F. Kuang

3.77

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says… read more

Similar categories in R.F. Kuang's Yellowface book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"The truth is fluid, there is always another way to spin the story."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"They tell authors never to look at Goodreads, but nobody follows that advice—none of us can resist the urge to know how our work is being received."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hu…"

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

Cover of The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

17. The Bee Sting

By: Paul Murray

3.96

Format: 656 pages, Hardcover

From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and … read more

Similar categories in Paul Murray's The Bee Sting book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • novels
  • book club
  • audiobook
"It is for love. You are doing this for love."

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"We all have problems. But often instead of accepting the truth about ourselves, we cover it up. We try to make ourselves the way we think we’re expected to be."

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"Maybe every era has an atrocity woven into its fabric. Maybe every society is complicit in terrible things and only afterwards gets around to pretending they didn’t know. When the kids ask, tell them…"

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"Maybe that’s how it will go – instead of one definitive cataclysm, a series of ‘anomalies’, each time lasting longer, with the stretches of what you call normal life becoming further and further apar…"

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

Cover of Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

18. Hamnet

By: Maggie O'Farrell

4.20

Format: 372 pages, Hardcover

Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare'… read more

Similar categories in Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • british literature
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"He has, Anges sees, done what any father would wish to do, to exchange his child’s suffering for his own, to take his place, to offer himself up in his child’s stead so that the boy might live."

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

"And there, by the fire, held in the arms of his mother, in the room in which he learnt to crawl, to eat, to walk, to speak, Hamnet takes his last breath. He draws it in, he lets it out. Then there is…"

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

"Ahora esa persona se ha perdido para siempre. Va a la deriva, no reconoce su propia vida. Está desamarrada, extraviada. Es una persona que llora si no encuentra un zapato, si cuece la sopa más de lo …"

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

"The sound that comes out of him is choked and smothered, like that of an animal forced to bears great weight. It is a noise of disbelief, of anguish. Anges will never forget it. At the end of her lif…"

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

Cover of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

19. Demon Copperhead

By: Barbara Kingsolver

4.50

Format: 560 pages, Hardcover

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose." Set in t… read more

Similar categories in Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"A kid is a terrible thing to be, in charge of nothing."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"I can still feel in my bones how being mad was the one thing holding me together."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real than sending up the Batman signal."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"life is a wild, impetuous ride. There could be good shit up ahead, don’t rule it out."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

Cover of Weyward by Emilia Hart

20. Weyward

By: Emilia Hart

4.07

Format: 416 pages, Paperback

I am a Weyward, and wild inside. 2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackl… read more

Similar categories in Emilia Hart's Weyward book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
" Altha . A strange name. Soft and yet powerful. Like an incantation."

-Emilia Hart, Weyward

"It took skill, Violet thought, to make even your handwriting look angry"

-Emilia Hart, Weyward

"She named me Altha, after all. Not Alice, meaning noble woman, nor Agnes, lamb of God. Altha. Healer."

-Emilia Hart, Weyward

"I thought he loved me for myself. But you were right. To him I am but an animal, like those he hunts and puts on display"

-Emilia Hart, Weyward

Cover of Good Material by Dolly Alderton

21. Good Material

By: Dolly Alderton

3.91

Format: 345 pages, Paperback

From the bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a story of heartbreak and f… read more

Similar categories in Dolly Alderton's Good Material book and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • novels
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Thirty-five is the youth of middle age."

-Dolly Alderton, Good Material

"Remember, a broken heart is a jester's greatest prop."

-Dolly Alderton, Good Material

"You know how to be along without being lonely. Do you know how rare that is?"

-Dolly Alderton, Good Material

"Why is it that London always seems the most alive and full of possibility on the nights when you've got no plans?"

-Dolly Alderton, Good Material

20 must-read fiction books like Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Transform Your Habits

Trust

Hernan Diaz

3.83

Transform Your Habits

Small Things Like These

Claire Keegan

4.18

Transform Your Habits

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.10

Transform Your Habits

Shuggie Bain

Douglas Stuart

4.31

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21 Top fiction books like Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Transform Your Habits

I Who Have Never Known Men

Ros Schwartz , Jacqueline Harpman

4.22

Transform Your Habits

Trust

Hernan Diaz

3.83

Transform Your Habits

Small Things Like These

Claire Keegan

4.18

Transform Your Habits

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.10

View all the books

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