Maggie O'Farrell wins Women's prize for fiction with 'exceptional' Hamnet

Study of grief over the death of Shakespeare’s young son from bubonic plague acclaimed by judges as a truly great novel

• Maggie O’Farrell: ‘Having to bury a child must be unlike anything else’

Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet, set in an England stalked by a plague that kills the young son of William Shakespeare, has won the Women’s prize for fiction.

A study of bereavement, O’Farrell’s eighth novel opens with the death of the 11-year-old boy, and delves into the relationship between Hamnet’s mother, Agnes, and her famous playwright husband.

Related: Maggie O’Farrell: ‘Having to bury a child must be unlike anything else’

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