THE DAZZLING NEW NOVEL FROM MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

The #1 New York Times Bestseller

'Her best one yet. Jodi Picoult has combined her trademark research with an astonishing and heart-rending story, embedded in truth, and turned it into a gripping novel' JOJO MOYES

'A timeless classic from one of our great storytellers' CHRIS WHITAKER

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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.

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'Stunning. So interesting, clever, educational and moving. One of the best books I've read in recent times' GILLIAN McALLISTER

'[An] inspiring work of feminist literature' ELLE

'Had me absolutely captivated . . . I loved all the questions this novel raised about who gets to tell which stories and how complex