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A revelatory take on the world's best-known love story: Juliet's Nurse combines a prequel to Romeo and Juliet with a fresh vision of the events in the play, all through the eyes of Juliet's ever-present wet nurse, Angelica, who tells a passionate tale of the deepest love in Verona--the love between a grieving woman and her precious milk-daughter.
In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo has by far the greatest number of lines, followed by Juliet. And who has the third most? Juliet's wet nurse. What did Shakespeare see in her? Lois Leveen's new novel is the vividly imagined, utterly intriguing answer to this question.
Angelica is still grieving the loss of her own day-old infant when she must leave her loving husband to enter the household of the wealthy Cappelletti family to care for their newborn baby. Mourning her own daughter, Angelica takes immense comfort in nurturing Juliet, but soon finds herself embedded in the rivalries and jealousies of the Capellettis, where sweet, 10-year-old Tybalt, cousin to Juliet, serves as her one ally. Fourteen years later, as the family's secrets--and the nurse's own deep losses--at last bubble to the surface, five momentous days of love and tragedy destroy a girl, and a family.
Juliet's Nurse takes us beyond the tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet into a very different story, revealing the love, loss and resilience that is the heart of human experience. "Lois Leveen has crafted a startlingly original take on an iconic love story, and with grace and insight presents Shakespeare's Verona and its characters in a wonderfully new and surprising light. Angelica's unabashed sensual nature is balanced by her understanding of the complexities of the human predicament, and in the end, her resilience inspires us all to be more tolerant of our own wounded hearts."
-Linda Holeman, author of The Devil on Her Tongue and The Lost Souls of Angelkov
"If Romeo and Juliet is the story of two star-crossed lovers, then Juliet's Nurse is the equally compelling love affair between the infant Juliet Cappelletti and her milk mother and nurse, Angelica. Leveen's novel is clever, fast-paced, well-researched and beautifully written. Convincing historical details are sprinkled throughout with a light hand, provoking in the reader the sense of: Oh, of course, yes . . . this is how it must have been in the 14th century. Exactly like this. I loved it."
-Roberta Rich, author of The Harem Midwife and The Midwife of Venice
"Wise, thoughtful and utterly irresistible, Juliet's Nurse opens the back door to Shakespeare's masterpiece, telling a powerful story not just of youth seduced by love and destruction, but also of maturity left to pick up what is left and carry on."
-Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace and Empress of the Night, the novels of Catherine the Great Award-winning author LOIS LEVEEN dwells in the spaces where literature and history meet. Her work has appeared in numerous literary and scholarly journals, as well as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Bitch magazine, The Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and on NPR. Lois gives talks about writing and history at universities, museums, and libraries around the United States. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with two cats, one Canadian, and 60,000 honeybees.
In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo has by far the greatest number of lines, followed by Juliet. And who has the third most? Juliet's wet nurse. What did Shakespeare see in her? Lois Leveen's new novel is the vividly imagined, utterly intriguing answer to this question.
Angelica is still grieving the loss of her own day-old infant when she must leave her loving husband to enter the household of the wealthy Cappelletti family to care for their newborn baby. Mourning her own daughter, Angelica takes immense comfort in nurturing Juliet, but soon finds herself embedded in the rivalries and jealousies of the Capellettis, where sweet, 10-year-old Tybalt, cousin to Juliet, serves as her one ally. Fourteen years later, as the family's secrets--and the nurse's own deep losses--at last bubble to the surface, five momentous days of love and tragedy destroy a girl, and a family.
Juliet's Nurse takes us beyond the tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet into a very different story, revealing the love, loss and resilience that is the heart of human experience. "Lois Leveen has crafted a startlingly original take on an iconic love story, and with grace and insight presents Shakespeare's Verona and its characters in a wonderfully new and surprising light. Angelica's unabashed sensual nature is balanced by her understanding of the complexities of the human predicament, and in the end, her resilience inspires us all to be more tolerant of our own wounded hearts."
-Linda Holeman, author of The Devil on Her Tongue and The Lost Souls of Angelkov
"If Romeo and Juliet is the story of two star-crossed lovers, then Juliet's Nurse is the equally compelling love affair between the infant Juliet Cappelletti and her milk mother and nurse, Angelica. Leveen's novel is clever, fast-paced, well-researched and beautifully written. Convincing historical details are sprinkled throughout with a light hand, provoking in the reader the sense of: Oh, of course, yes . . . this is how it must have been in the 14th century. Exactly like this. I loved it."
-Roberta Rich, author of The Harem Midwife and The Midwife of Venice
"Wise, thoughtful and utterly irresistible, Juliet's Nurse opens the back door to Shakespeare's masterpiece, telling a powerful story not just of youth seduced by love and destruction, but also of maturity left to pick up what is left and carry on."
-Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace and Empress of the Night, the novels of Catherine the Great Award-winning author LOIS LEVEEN dwells in the spaces where literature and history meet. Her work has appeared in numerous literary and scholarly journals, as well as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Bitch magazine, The Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and on NPR. Lois gives talks about writing and history at universities, museums, and libraries around the United States. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with two cats, one Canadian, and 60,000 honeybees.