#Domevember #BookshelfSpotlight ‘Juliet and Romeo’ by David Hewson

About the book…

‘Juliet & Romeo’ is available in paperback,hardcover and audiobook formats. This is Shakespeare as you have never seen him before…
Two young people meet: Romeo, desperate for love before being sent away to study, and Juliet facing a forced marriage to a nobleman she doesn’t know. Fate and circumstance bring them together in a desperate attempt to thwart their parents with a secret marriage. But in a single fateful week, their intricate scheming falls terribly apart.

Shakespeare’s most well-known and well-loved play has been turned in to a gripping romantic thriller with a modern twist. Rich with the sights and sounds of medieval Italy, peopled with a vibrant cast of characters who spring from the page, this is Shakespeare as you’ve never read it before.

I was kindly sent this copy of ‘Juliet & Romeo’ by the wonderful Emily Glenister at Dome Press when we originally began working out what I would read and review as well as highlight and feature for #Domevember.

As a slight confession, my entire knowledge of the story of the Montagues versus the Capulets has been informed by social concepts-i.e the ‘it is’ against ‘it is not’ a love story. I have seen none of the films based on it, have not studied the play at school nor have I seen it performed. I was coming at this from a completely fresh angle and it was bloody terrifying. Not only is this one of the best known and loved of Shakespeare’s tragedies, it is one I know the least about and David Hewson happens to be a favourite of mine due to his novels of ‘The Killing’ . So, no pressure there at all.

What I found, having no expectations, was a brilliantly conceived tale that was transplanted to the 15th century Renaissance period ,a seamless transition to a time of huge cultural, political and societal shifts. Juliet and Romeo are straddling a schism of personal and familial obligation at a time when it was both bold and dangerous to chase after their own dreams .

Centering Juliet and rejigging the title makes it different and compelling, it gives Juliet a voice and a role that has hitherto been merely seen as an adjunct to the males in the tale. As she says to her mother who is proposing she marries a suitable male who has ‘admired her from afar’-

‘Parents are just a little version of God,aren’t they? He furnishes us with the faculty to form questions then slaps us down if we have the nerve to ask for a few answers in return.While you give us life,then,we want to own that life,you say…ooh,no, It’s ours.You belong to us. We made you’.

She may be young but she has the measure of her parents Bianca and Luca, who see her as a pawn in a game that has been going on so long that it’s origins are lost in the mist of time. It takes the very real and deep cultural significance of the classic play, takes away the arcahic language without losing any of the beauty of it and adds a modern -that feels so odd to write as it takes place so long ago-feel to a timeless tale.

It made me fall in love with these two young characters and the places they live in-the descriptions of Italy at the precipice of the Renaissance is compelling, verdant and richly described to the point where you can see the dark alleyways, smell the food and visualise the skyline of turrets.

The sense of obligation on the two youngest members of each dynasty is a tale as old as time, they must do as is expected of them , as the parents have done and theirs before them…this entire narrative is unravelled by tiny steps such as Romeo’s decision not to grow a beard -‘I didn’t feel a lesser son for faling to follow in his lead’-Juliet’s defiance at pretty much everything her father says and does, alongside her dismay at the way her mother looks constantly sad. If that is the example of marriage being held in front of her, no wonder being married off to Count Paris at 16 is such a joyless prospect!

The fascinating meetings, lies and missed opportunities are equisitely staged and will have you on the edge of your seat as you will the young lovers to finally overthrow generations of ill will and fighting.And as it hurtles on to it’s inevitable conclusion, there are many twists and turns so that anyone familiar with this play, this story, will see it anew and hopefully with an appreciation for it deepened and strengthened.

I absolutely loved the bones of this tale and it just reminds me how vivid, how extraordinary the tales that Shakespeare told are. That they can be endlessly, and equisitely reinvented and retold in books such as ‘Juliet & Romeo’ is a wonderful thing. This is a book for anyone who has ever thought the works of the bard were too much for them, anyone with a love of this story or love stories, anyone who lokks books. I cannot recommend it highly enough, it took my breath away in suspense, drama, action and romance all of which were set against a beautiful, resonant Italian backdrop. It’s a book for anyone who thinks they might not like Shaespeare, feel it is beyond them, or who had it spoiled for life by English teachers .

There still exists a type of prejudice which remains mostly unwritten and unsaid,that Shakespeare (and enjoying Shakespeare) is elitist and for those who can understand it due to their education. What this reminds me of, as a working class woman who lives in one of the poorest parts of Wales, in social housing, is that the universality of his themes are for everyone. David Hewson has done something incredible by taking a story known by the majority and making it accessible, readable and new again. He has reignited a passion in me for this time period as names popping up recalled memories of A Level History- the Borgias, Savaonarola, Machiavelli, all came flooding back, and at this point in time when we are again, poised for monumental change,art and revolution has become even more relevant and important than ever.

Thank you so very much for reading this far, if indeed you have, and hopefully the meaning will have tranversed these clumy words when I say please try and read ‘Juliet & Romeo’. It is a wonderful ,brilliant book.

About the author…

DAVID HEWSON was born in Yorkshire in 1953. His books range from the Nic Costa series set in Italy to adaptations of ‘The Killing‘ in Copenhagen and the Pieter Vos series in Amsterdam.
He’s adapted Shakespeare for Audible and in 2018 won the Audie for best original work for Juliet & Romeo: A Novel‘, narrated by Richard Armitage.
2019 sees the release of a new, full-cast Audible drama set in New York, Last Seen Wearing, and a standalone novel set in the Faroe Islands, Devil’s Fjord.

Links-https://davidhewson.com/