By Any Other Name

Two women four centuries apart fight the same battle for credit over work that is unmistakably theirs, and Jodi Picoult lets their stories comment on each other. One writes in Elizabethan England, the other in contemporary theatre. The historical thread follows a gifted young woman in a society with no room for female authorship; the modern one follows a playwright trying to be heard in a competitive industry. Picoult moves between them so that questions about who gets remembered, and who decides, build across both timelines. The research is detailed, the characters carry the argument, and the result reads as story first. Good to know before buying: • Dual-timeline historical fiction with a contemporary counterpart • Themes of authorship, recognition and the record history keeps • Two strong central characters shaping their own narratives • Researched Elizabethan detail used to serve the story A strong pick for book clubs and readers of intelligent historical fiction, available in English at Boipoka.