Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

The author has taken some scant historical facts known about Shakespeare and his life, from his origin story to his marriage, and then his children, and written a richly textured story about 16th century English countryside life. The great man himself barely makes an appearance, he is a side show to his wife, Agnes (apparently that while she is remembered as Anne Hathaway, even that is not exactly clear and she may have been Agnes). She is illiterate to his knowledge of Greek and Latin, and yet she is beguiling in her love of nature and her knowledge of curing plants. The have three children together, first a daughter who was conceived before their marriage and then twins, a boy and a girl. The girl is the weak one, smaller at birth and more fragile, but it is the boy, Hamnet, who dies at age eleven. The rest of the novel is on the nature of grief, how it invades your life, takes it over, and how it can wedge people apart. It is fierce and tenatious, like a weed. This it simply gorgeous, and a must read.