Hamnet

Set in England in 1580, with the Black Death a constant threat, Maggie O'Farrell's novel follows a young Latin tutor, penniless and bullied by a violent father, who falls in love with Agnes, an eccentric young woman known for her gifts as a healer, who roams her family's land with a falcon perched on her glove. After they settle on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, Agnes becomes a fiercely protective mother while her husband's career on the London stage takes off. The story imagines the family of William Shakespeare and their son Hamnet, whose name went to one of the most celebrated of all plays. It won the Women's Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

Bill Gates called it a moving novel about how Shakespeare's personal life might have shaped one of his most famous plays, and recommended it to Shakespeare fans.