And this is it. My final read of April, and possibly the best book I’ll read all year.
I genuinely struggle to put my thoughts in to words about this book. It is an absolute masterpiece that explores love, loss, family, and grief in ways I hadn’t even thought were possible in a book. Agnes is the star of this book: her difference from the rest of the family, her love for her husband, her determination to do what she feels is right, and her relationships with her children were overwhelming and magical and felt just so honest and true. This book made me cry (very grateful to Simon at Savidge Reads for dutifully warning readers about this in his videos) and smile and, while I know most people reading this won’t be Shakespeare mad like me, I thought the way that the play Hamlet was acknowledged in this book was very powerful, and yet so very understated.
This is not a book about Shakespeare, his plays, or his achievements. It is about a mother, in Stratford, and how she and her husband deal with the loss of their child. Everything else falls away, somehow - but that brief acknowledgement of the play at the end was so beautifully and emotively done that after I’d sat and cried some more, I immediately went to read the play again. This is honestly the best book I have read all year by a mile, possibly one of the best books I have ever read. I don’t know what more to say than that.
Have you read any of these books? What did you read in April? Leave a comment!