By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

I have really enjoyed many of Jodi Picoult's books, and this is up there with the best of them. This is a book calculated to make you think. If someone told me that this was based on a true story, as believable as the characters are. This was so well researched, and a really stunning read.

The story is told by two amazing women. In 1580s England we meet Emilia Bassano who is sold as a mistress to a much older man, by her cousin. The one thing that keeps Emilia going is the fact that she is a playwright and writes plays and poetry. Unfortunately in those time women were not allowed to write plays - so she sold them to Shakespeare to pass off as his own. In the current day her ancestor is also having problems -   Melina Green is also a playwright. She is having similar problems in that she believes that her plays will not be taken seriously as they are written by a woman. When she writes her best play, about her ancestor Emilia, her best friend decides enough is enough, and put the name Mel Green on it and submits it for her in a prestigious competition.

There are so many quotes in here attributed to Shakespeare, where I am now wondering if they were actually by someone else! So clever. I was fully invested in the stories in both time lines and didn't want it to end.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6957475175