Posts Tagged ‘Maggie O’Farrell’

You may know Maggie O’Farrell from her bestselling novel, Hamnet, but if that’s the only book of hers you’ve read, you are in for a treat!

In celebration of the publication of her new historical novel The Marriage Portrait—a portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court—we’re taking a look back at Maggie’s rich backlist.

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The Marriage Portrait

The author of Hamnet—New York Times best seller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner—brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

Read an excerpt | Get the reader’s guide | Buy the book

England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young alike. The end of days is near, but life always goes on.

A young Latin tutor—penniless and bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman. Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is just taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.

Read an excerpt | Get the reader’s guide | Buy the book