Created during the making of Chloé Zhao’s latest film, Hamnet, Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream is the debut book in collaboration between the Academy Award-winning director, star actress Jessie Buckley, and photographer Agata Grzybowska.
Rooted in the expansive dream-work that shaped Zhao’s creative process, the book emerges from a series of artistic rituals shared between these three collaborators, through which Zhao’s cinematic storytelling, Buckley’s mesmerising writings, and Grzybowska’s haunting photographs were made. Brought together in this book, they conjure a parallel telling of the story of Hamnet, the son of William Shakespeare.
Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, Hamnet is a historical drama that delves into the personal tragedy of William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes. The film centers on the couple’s profound grief following the death of their young son, Hamnet. Told mainly from Agnes’s perspective (Buckley), the story is an intimate look at how this devastating loss unravels their marriage and reshapes their family.
Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream unfolds as a quiet companion to the film: not a document of its making, but a powerful reimagining that exists somewhere in the threshold between the worlds of waking and dreaming, reality and illusion, life and death.
Following its world premiere at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival on August 29, 2025, Hamnet is set to begin a limited U.S. theatrical run on November 27, 2025. The film will then open nationwide two weeks later on December 12, 2025.
Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream is launching this Fall, published by MACK