The bestselling author’s next novel, By Any Other Name, offers a new take on an age-old question: What if Shakespeare’s plays had actually been written by a woman?
Jodi Picoult has written 29 books in her three-decade career and has finally landed on the book she feels destined to write. “I don’t know if I believe in reincarnation,” says the 58-year-old author. “But I feel like this is the story I should tell.”
Her new novel Under a different nameout August 20, tells the stories on two timelines of Emilia Bassano, a real woman who some historians say may have been behind Shakespeare’s work, and Melina Green, a fictional modern playwright who finds success by using the name of her black roommate.
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Delving into the age-old controversy surrounding Shakespeare’s authorship is not such a far-fetched undertaking for Picoult, as her previous novels have tackled controversial topics such as abortion, racism, school shootings, and many more.