Chasing Shakespeares

"The best book about the Bard since Anthony Burgess's Nothing like the Sun"—Samuel R. Delany

Two graduate students, not alike in dignity: Joe Roper, dirt-poor aspiring Shakespeare biographer, finds a letter from William Shakespeare--saying he didn't write the plays.  Posy Gould, a Hollywood producer's daughter from Harvard, never met a high concept she didn't like, and she likes this one.

Posy wants to expose Shakespeare as a fraud and make the movie. Joe wants to save Shakespeare.

The two literary sleuths head for London to prove their clashing theories. But they find themselves in a world where the London Eye looks out over Shakespeare's city, Hollywood producers rub elbows with Elizabethan spies, and mystery shadows the heart of Westminster Abbey and the lanes of rural England. And Joe and Posy find that, when you start chasing Shakespeares, what you find is not only who he was, but who you are, and how far you're willing to go...

"Wonderfully entertaining, thought-provoking, and highly readable--a stunning combination of fascinating fact and exciting fiction."--Sir Derek Jacobi 

"Smart, sexy modern-day mystery reminiscent of A.S. Byatt's Possession"--Boston Globe 

"A remarkable achievement, blending history and fantasy, past and present, ideas and emotions into a seamless whole that is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking.":--Iain Pears, author of An Instance of the Fingerpost 

"Anyone who enjoyed (obvious predecessors) A.S. Byatt's Possession or Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time will be suitably charmed—and enlightened. Literate, polished literary entertainment."--Kirkus Reviews

"Marjorie Garber, meet Reese Witherspoon"—The New York Times

"Romance, intrigue, and the literary whodunit of our time--Chasing Shakespeares is a romp and I savored every moment of it."—Hallie Ephron, author of  Careful What You Wish For
 
"A brilliant and moving work! Sarah Smith gives Josephine Tey a run for her money, revealing vividly a slice of history we never knew we could believe in, intertwined with engrossing modern characters."—Ellen Kushner, author of Swordspoint
 
"By page five I forgot I was reading to comment and began reading to devour. Chasing Shakespeares is breezy, erudite, never ponderous, a love story about how we make our heroes, and how they make us."—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked

"Romance, intrigue, and the literary whodunit of our time—Chasing Shakespeares is a romp and I savored every moment of it."—Hallie Ephron, author of  Careful What You Wish For

A Village Voice Summer Read--NEIBA Bestseller--Detroit Free Press four stars