PositiveTimes Literary Supplement (UK)O’Farrell creates a period setting through mood rather than historical facts or details ... Above all, however, this artfully paced novel is an anatomy of grief ... Just when the novel’s second part seems to be moving to a tragic conclusion, it mounts a stunning redemptive volte-face ... This novel also fills in a vacancy, turning the bare fact of Hamnet’s death into a tribute to family bonds and to theatrical power.
