Fic­tion

Juli­et’s Nurse: A Novel

  • From the Publisher
September 18, 2014

An enthralling new telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juli­et—told from the per­spec­tive of Juliet’s nurse.

In Verona, a city rav­aged by plague and polit­i­cal rival­ries, a moth­er mourn­ing the death of her day-old infant enters the house­hold of the pow­er­ful Cap­pel­let­ti fam­i­ly to become the wet-nurse to their new­born baby. As she serves her beloved Juli­et over the next four­teen years, the nurse learns the Cap­pel­let­tis’ dark­est secrets. Those secrets — and the nurse’s deep per­son­al grief — erupt across five momen­tous days of love and loss that destroy a daugh­ter, and a family.

By turns sen­su­al, trag­ic, and com­ic, Juliet’s Nurse gives voice to one of literature’s most mem­o­rable and dis­tinc­tive char­ac­ters, a woman who was both insid­er and out­sider among Verona’s wealthy rul­ing class. Explor­ing the romance and intrigue of inter­wo­ven loy­al­ties, rival­ries, jeal­ousies, and loss­es only hint­ed at in Shakespeare’s play, this is a nev­er-before-heard tale of the deep­est love in Verona — the love between a griev­ing woman and the pre­cious child of her heart.

In the tra­di­tion of Sarah Dunant, Philip­pa Gre­go­ry, and Geral­dine Brooks, Juliet’s Nurse is a rich pre­quel that reimag­ines the world’s most cher­ished tale of love and loss, suf­fer­ing and survival.

Read Lois Lev­een’s Vis­it­ing Scribe Posts

Romeo and Jew­li­et, or a Jew­ish Nov­el­ist Walks into a Shake­speare Play

Shake­speare, Shmake­speare: Jews and the Bard

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