Shakespeare’s Twin Sister
Review of novel by Richard Seltzer
I am the author.
Shakespeare’s twin sister wakes up in the body of a 99-year-old woman in a nursing home in 1987. She has quite a tale to tell:
— her coming-of-age story, posing as a boy to get an education,
— twins separated at birth sorting out the mystery of their otherworldly connection to one another,
— a lifelong three-way love story,
— soul projection and transference linking individuals to one another and connecting past to present,
— and the story of a young reporter who falls in love with the soul he finds in the body of an old and dying woman.
As a cross-dressing sword-fighting teenager, Kate beats Mercutio, captain of the King’s Musketeers, in a duel in Paris.
As Will’s double and writing partner, Kate enables him to do the work of two geniuses.
This outlandish view of Shakespeare’s life and times stays true to the facts, while presenting explanations that are intriguingly plausible.
The character of the 99-year-old woman was inspired by Princess Mary Orbeliani, who I met in her nursing home in Penticton, British Columbia when she was 98 and I was researching an historical novel about her brother (The Name of Hero, Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin, 1981). Simma Holt wrote an article about her entitled “The Princess on Welfare” published in the Vancouver Sun in 1972.-year-old lady in whose body Shakespeare’s win wakes I dedicated the novel to her.
Like Shakespeare in Love, this is a humorous, romantic take on Shakespeare the man.
Like Yentl, a brilliant young woman finds creative ways to succeed in a man-dominated world.
Like Outlander, it links present and past.
Shakespeare’s Twin Sister and my four previous novels (Parallel Lives, Beyond the 4th Door, Nevermind, and Breeze) can be read in any order. They are independent stories, with overlapping themes and styles. Each novel presents a different view of reality, a different way of trying to understand the mysteries of life.
