shakespeare, hamnet

"A . . . novel about the death of Shakespeare's 11 year old son Hamnet--a name interchangeable with Hamlet in 15th century Britain--and the years leading up to the production of his great play. England, 1580. A young Latin tutor--penniless, bullied by a violent father--falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman--a wild creature who walks her family's estate with a falcon on her shoulder and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer. Agnes understands plants and potions better than she does people, but once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose gifts as a writer are just beginning to awaken when his beloved young son succumbs to bubonic plague"--Provided by publisher.

In England during the Black Death, a young Latin tutor falls in love with unusual woman named Agnes, and they get married. Soon, they move to Stratford-upon-Avon, and Agnes becomes a rock of stability for her playwright husband as his career in London takes off. But tragedy strikes when their young son Hamnet dies.