1. The first is Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O’Farrell.

I read this one in late 2020, while we were in the midst of our own generation’s plague. What struck me then was how well it personalized grief for one family during a time when disease was wiping out multitudes. It’s easy to get caught up in the statistics during a pandemic. But death and mourning are individual.

2. While we are on the subject of Shakespeare’s wife, I highly recommend The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan. This one refuses to put Anne in the position of abandoned wife, raising the children back home while her husband gallivants about London writing plays and growing famous. It takes Anne into London, writing alongside him AND evaluating his work and comparing it to hers. Spoiler alert—hers is better.

3. You really can’t visit Shakespeare’s world without bumping into Christopher Marlowe. This shadowy playwright and Elizabethan spy was a brilliant man who died before reaching thirty years of age. For an immersive, imaginative look at his life, A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein can’t be beat. As per my review: “This life of Marlowe’s making is a stew of moral ambiguity. The reader is confronted with the difficult questions and quandaries the artist/spy faced. Epstein’s marvelous writing and careful plotting twine together Marlowe’s art and his reality. The heart-wrenching ending of the book is a masterful culmination of all Marlowe worked for and all he worked to avoid.”

4. And finally, for those who prefer biography to biographical fiction, there is a new literary biography out that explores the life, work, and world of Christopher Marlowe. Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival by Stephen Greenblatt is particularly impressive for its presentation of the complicated politics and religious factions of the Elizabethan era. It analyzes Marlowe’s writings, particularly his plays, in the context of that world. There is a lot of speculation about his life, which can get frustrating, but the fact is, little is actually known. It makes the man all the more intriguing.