![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/hamnet.jpg\")
Maggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s award-winning novel is the basis of a new film. (Courtesy Vintage)<\/p>\nMaggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s award-winning novel is the basis of a new film. (Courtesy Vintage)<\/p>\n
Most of us won\u2019t get to see it until its general release in theaters in December, but the Mill Valley Film Festival<\/a> is opening on Oct. 2 with \u201cHamnet,\u201d the Chlo\u00e9 Zhao-directed film based on Maggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s best-selling 2000 novel, which is, at heart, a compelling romance, a harrowing tale about the ravages of the 16th-century plague and an ingenious origin story about the creation of William Shakespeare\u2019s most famous play. (\u201cHamnet\u201d and \u201cHamlet,\u201d by the way, were virtually interchangeable names in Shakespeare\u2019s time.) Previewed to wild acclaim at earlier festivals this year in Telluride and Toronto and already generating Oscar buzz, the film stars Jessie Buckley as the ethereal healer Agnes, who marries Paul Mescal\u2019s William, the young Latin tutor and son of the village glovemaker with the stellar literary career ahead of him. The screenplay was cowritten by director Zhao, who also directed the multi-Oscar-winning \u201cNomadland\u201d from 2021, and author O\u2019Farrell, who has declared the product of their collaboration \u201ca beauty, from start to finish.\u201d The official trailer is here.<\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n Just appointed:<\/strong> We have a new well-versed guy to hold in high regard in Arthur Sze, 74, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, an author, professor and translator who earned his self-directed bachelor\u2019s degree in poetry at UC Berkeley decades ago. Sze, named by the Library of Congress to a one-year post as the U.S. Poet Laureate, will give his inaugural reading at the Library on Oct. 9. Last December, accepting an earlier award at the Library, he spoke about the crucial role he believes poetry plays in our lives, and in his own. He said poetry \u201chelps us slow down and deepen our attention; it helps us uncover, discover things we didn\u2019t know and things we didn\u2019t know we already knew, things that we couldn\u2019t articulate until we experienced them in a poem. A poem communicates first through sound and rhythm, and it is understood viscerally in the body before it can be articulated by intelligence. Poetry speaks to our deepest selves and connects us all, and it also speaks to the exigencies of our time. Poetry is our essential language, and it is as essential to me as breathing.\u201d Sample a bit of Sze\u2019s poetry here.<\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s that rumbling sound? <\/strong>There have been all sorts of preliminary upheavals in various locations across the Bay, but the official opening night of the popular annual Litquake<\/a> festival takes place from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Hawthorn SF Nightclub and Lounge at 46 Geary St. in San Francisco. That\u2019s where local comedian Natasha Muse, assisted by DJ Lead Teddy,\u00a0will do an extended riff on what ticket buyers have confessed to reading in a program called \u201c(Not So) Guilty Pleasures.\u201d No piece of scurrilous or lowbrow literature, organizers promise, will be deemed unworthy of inclusion, so attendees are encouraged to divulge their deepest secrets for this ticketed event ($55.20 through Eventbrite<\/a>). The festival continues with many free events through Oct. 25, when it will conclude, as is customary, with the booze-fueled nighttime Litcraw<\/a>l through Mission District pubs, nightclubs and gathering spots. Founded in 1999, the festival has grown to near-gargantuan proportions, featuring authors and performers aplenty, now at more than 60 venues in San Francisco and the East Bay, including, this year, the San Francisco Botanical Garden and the Maritime Museum in the city and Mrs. Dalloway\u2019s bookstore and the Brower Center for the Performing Arts in Berkeley. Authors and writers by the dozens are scheduled presenters and participants, including Andrew Sean Greer, Ada Lim\u00f3n, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, W. Kamau Bell, Susan Orlean, Matthew Zapruder, Jane Hirshfield and many more. Find a schedule and more information at litquake.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Author alert:<\/strong> Coming to Rakestraw Books in Danville in late October is San Francisco author Rabih Alameddine, whose latest novel, \u201cThe True True Story of Raja the Gullible (And His Mother),\u201d just out from Grove Press, seems to bear all the hallmarks that made his most famous novel, 2014\u2019s \u201cAn Unnecessary Woman,\u201d so memorable. Chief stock in trade for Alameddine is his wry humor, often expressed in the voice of his characters, as it was in that earlier work with Aaliya Sobhi, the stubbornly independent septuagenarian translator in Beirut resisting pressures on all sides from her family and her society. The narrator in \u201cThe True True Story,\u201d also set in Lebanon, is a gay high school philosophy teacher in his sixties who lives with, fiercely loves and is constantly at war with his overbearing octogenarian mother, who assiduously pushes herself into each and every aspect of his life. The novel opens with the dutiful son preparing to, once again, dye his demanding but beloved mother\u2019s hair: \u201cI\u2019d been her designated hair colorist since she\u2019d stop trusting professionals while still in her early forties. She cursed the entire trade when one poor sod mistakenly dyed her hair a deep russet\u2014and he was a poor sod because he was still a young apprentice at the time. He was all she could afford. My father had my mother, all of us, on a strict budget. Every now and then, I would ask if she could sit down on the floor between my legs so I didn\u2019t have to stand while dyeing her hair. She refused, of course. I had to suffer for her elegance, she\u2019d say.\u201d Alameddine will read from the novel at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 at Rakestraw<\/a>, 3 Railroad Ave., Danville.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the short list: <\/strong>Six works of fiction have emerged from a group of 13 as contenders for the 2025 Booker Prize, awarded to authors (of any nationality) of books written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.\u00a0Announced in London on Sept. 23 by the panel of six judges chaired by Irish author Roddy Doyle, a Booker winner from 1993, the list will be winnowed down to the triumphant entry to be revealed on Nov. 10. This year\u2019s nominees are:\u00a0\u201cFlashlight,\u201d<\/strong> by Susan Choi, which revolves around the mystery surrounding the disappearance of an academic Korean emigr\u00e9 to America one night in coastal Japan and the impact on his wife and 10-year-old daughter; \u201cThe Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,\u201d <\/strong>by Kiran Desai, about two young people who initially resisted their Indian grandparents\u2019 attempts at matchmaking but years later embarked upon a romance beset by difficulties; \u201cAudition,\u201d<\/strong> by Katie Kitamura, a challenging narrative with three characters \u2014 a successful actress, her writer partner and a younger man \u2014 that turns and twists as readers\u2019 perceptions of their true relationships changes; \u201cThe Rest of Our Lives,\u201d <\/strong>by Ben Markovitz, about a middle-aged man in a troubled marriage who takes off on a solo road trip after dropping his daughter off at college; \u201cThe Land in Winter,\u201d<\/strong> by Andrew Miller,\u00a0 concerning two young couples in the British West Country, a doctor, a dairy farmer and their newly pregnant wives whose lives undergo upheaval during a great blizzard and its aftermath; and \u201cFlesh,\u201d<\/strong> by David Szalay, which follows the trajectory of the life of a shy 15-year-old Hungarian boy who moves from a clandestine relationship with an older woman into military service and on into the company of the rich and powerful in 21st century London.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hooked on Books is a monthly column by\u00a0Sue Gilmore<\/strong>\u00a0on current literary buzz and can\u2019t-miss upcoming book events. Look for it here every last Thursday of the month.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s award-winning novel is the basis of a new film. (Courtesy Vintage) Most of us won\u2019t get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[56350,56351,23498,56352,56353,56354,46626,56355,359,15770,56356,18,117,56357,56358,25885,19,56359,17,56360,24510,56361,14763,56362,56363,56364,56365,56366,56367,23432,56368,56369,56370,56371,29153,56372,56373,56374,56375,56376,56377],"class_list":{"0":"post-85201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-the-audition","9":"tag-not-so-guilty-pleasures","10":"tag-ada-limon","11":"tag-an-unnecessary-woman","12":"tag-andrew-miller","13":"tag-andrew-sean-greer","14":"tag-arthur-sze","15":"tag-ben-markovitz","16":"tag-books","17":"tag-chloe-zhao","18":"tag-david-szalay","19":"tag-eire","20":"tag-entertainment","21":"tag-flashlight","22":"tag-flesh","23":"tag-hamnet","24":"tag-ie","25":"tag-ingrid-rojas-contreras","26":"tag-ireland","27":"tag-jane-hirshfield","28":"tag-jessie-buckley","29":"tag-katie-kitamura","30":"tag-kiran-desai","31":"tag-litcrawl","32":"tag-litquake","33":"tag-maggie-ofarrell","34":"tag-matthew-zapruder","35":"tag-mill-valley-film-festival","36":"tag-natasha-muse","37":"tag-paul-mescal","38":"tag-rabih-alameddine","39":"tag-susan-choi","40":"tag-susan-orlean","41":"tag-the-land-in-winter","42":"tag-the-loneliness-of-sonia-and-sunny","43":"tag-the-rest-of-our-lives","44":"tag-the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother","45":"tag-u-s-poet-laureate","46":"tag-viet-thanh-nguyen","47":"tag-w-kamau-bell","48":"tag-william-shakespeare"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/arthur-sze-by-Shawn-Miller.jpeg\")
Arthur Sze is the 2025-26 Poet Laureate. (Shawn Miller\/Library of Congress via Bay City News)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Litquake-poster-by-Caitin-Mattison.jpg\")
Litquake 2025 hosts dozens of literary events in San Francisco and the East Bay. (Caitin Mattison via Bay City News)
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Susan-Orlean_credit-Noah-Fecks.jpeg\")
\u201cThe Orchid Thief\u201d author Susan Orlean, whose new memoir is \u201cJoyride,\u201d appears in a Litquake event in Oakland on Oct. 30. (Noah Fecks via Bay City News)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Rabih-Alameddine-photo-by-Oliver-Wasow.jpg\")
Rabih Alameddine, a San Francisco and Lebanon-based author renowned for his puckish humor, reads from his new novel at Rakestraw Books in Danville on Oct. 27. (Oliver Wasow via Bay City News)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DAVID-SZALAY-C-Jonas-Matyassy.jpg\")
David Szalay, author of the novel \u201cFlesh,\u201d is one of six short-list nominees for the 2025 Booker Prize. (Jonas Matyassy via Bay City News)<\/p>\n