For your next captivating read, pick up By Any Other Name, a gripping feminist novel by Jodi Picoult. This hardback edition intertwines the stories of two women centuries apart, questioning the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Sourced from the UK, this is a must-read for historical fiction fans.
What if the greatest writer of all time isn't who we think he is? What if he isn't even a he? Step back four hundred years and discover the female author who hid behind the mask of the man we know as William Shakespeare . . .
In Elizabethan London, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her education has endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but still she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees the theatre, Emilia discovers the power of stories to beguile audiences. Secretly, she forms a plan to bring a play of her own to the stage - by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.
In modern-day Manhattan, playwright Melina Green finds a woman's voice is still worth less than a man's. But, inspired by the life of her ancestor Emilia Bassano, Melina takes a lesson from history and submits a play under a male pseudonym . . .
Moving between Elizabethan England and modern day Manhattan, By Any Other Name is a beautifully written, compelling novel that explores the theme of identity and the ways in which two women, centuries apart-one of whom might just be the real author of Shakespeare's plays-are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard.
Jodi Picoult is the author of 29 novels, with 40 million copies sold worldwide. She has had 17 Sunday Times number one bestsellers. Five novels have been made into movies and Between The Lines (co-written with daughter Samantha van Leer) has been adapted as a musical. She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction, the Alex Award from the YA Library Services Association, and the NH Literary Award for Outstanding Literary Merit. She is also the co-librettist for the musicals BREATHE and THE BOOK THIEF, which debuted in the UK in 2022. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband.
