The best new literary adaptations coming to a screen near you

Paul Mescal, the Normal People star who has since gone stratospheric, returns to our screens in another literary adaptation, this time playing Shakespeare in a film of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet which imagines the death of the playwright’s son. It’s just one of many buzzy literary films screened at this month’s London film festival, which comes to a close today. In this week’s Bookmarks, we give you a run down of the most exciting adaptations to look out for over the next few months.

And Nikita Gill – whose book Hekate is this week’s audiobook of the week – tells us about her recent reads.

Leading the literary pack at this year’s London film festival is Hamnet, director Chloé Zhao’s rendering of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling, multi-award-winning 2020 novel. Paul Mescal plays a grieving Shakespeare while Jessie Buckley is a standout as his wife Agnes Hathaway. The result is a “stately, occasionally lugubrious drama whose closing minutes are among the most poignant in recent memory”, according to our reviewer. It’ll be released in the UK on 9 January.

Out now, in time for Halloween, is Guillermo del Toro’s take on Frankenstein, starring Oscar Isaac as Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as his monster, marking “the nearest this iconic figure has come to being a bit of a hottie”, writes Peter Bradshaw.

The Thing With Feathers, based on Max Porter’s novella Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, comes out on 21 November. Benedict Cumberbatch plays a father who is left to look after two sons after the unexpected death of his wife. His hold on reality loosens and he begins to be stalked by an anthropomorphic crow.

While we’re on the topic of grief and birds, H Is for Hawk is also upcoming, slated for release in January. Based on a bestselling memoir by Helen Macdonald (played in the screen adaptation by Claire Foy), the film follows an academic who channels her grief into training a northern goshawk.

Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson star in an adaptation of Ariana Harwicz’s Die, My Love, translated into English by Carolina Orloff and Sarah Moses, a brutal, bitterly comic account of a woman’s descent into postpartum psychosis. It’s out in UK cinemas on the 14 November.

Another Twilight star, Kristen Stewart, has made her directorial debut with The Chronology of Water, based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir of abuse, addiction and first love. A Pale View of Hills, adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s 1982 novel of the same name, about postwar Nagasaki, also screened at this month’s film festival. UK release dates for both films are TBC.

Also to watch out for, coming in February, is Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Last month, the Saltburn director spoke out amid controversy over her casting choices.