LONDON – Maggie O’Farrell won the Women’s Prize for Fiction on Wednesday for “Hamnet,” a novel that explores the lives of William Shakespeare’s often-maligned wife and lost son.O’Farrell’s novel beat finalists including Hilary Mantel’s Tudor saga “The Mirror and the Light” and Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker Prize winner “Girl, Woman, Other” to the 30,000-pound ($39,000) award.The Northern Ireland-born O'Farrell said she had long been fascinated by Hamnet Shakespeare, who died aged 11 in 1596 — likely from the plague.