James Shapiro

WINNER OF THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE
(Best non-fiction book published in Britain)

Also awarded: THE THEATRE BOOK PRIZE

“Superbly illuminating....as a synthesizer and as a guide—in clear prose underpinned by considerable learning, worn lightly—[Shapiro] deserves whoops of applause.” -- Sam Leith, The Spectator

“By giving us an account of what Shakespeare must have read, heard and seen that year, Shapiro goes further than any other biographer in accounting for the relationship between those words and his life.”-- Frances Wilson, The Daily Telegraph

“From the deliciously vivid first pages, in which a group of armed theatricals make a dash through the snow in the dead of night to filch a theatre's timber frame and transfer it to the Globe, Shapiro weaves a tantalizing narrative.” --David Lister, The Independent

“The book is really a wonderfully deft interweaving of historical and cultural context, physical and social description, the politics and economics of Shakespeare’s work as a professional actor and co-owner of the Globe theatre.” -- Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times

“If you have any interest in Shakespeare at all, you won't be able to put it down…for my money, A Year in the Life really shows how books like this ought to be written.” -- Hans Werner, The Toronto Star

Listed among the best books of the year in The Guardian, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Irish Times, The Evening Standard, The Sunday Times, The New Statesman, The Observer, The Telegraph, and The National Post (Canada), The New Zealand Listener, Radio New Zealand, The Courier Mail (Australia), Barnes and Noble.com, and the Times Literary Supplement.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

"Compelling....even-handed....Shapiro exposes the basic human desire to rewrite the past."--San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

"It seems only natural while reading 'Oberammergau' to wonder if you're reading Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' by mistake....Fascinating."--The Austin Chronicle

"Full of fascinating nuggets....If you want to know Oberammergau's play survived while countless others just like it disappeared, Mr. Shapiro can tell you."--Wall Street Journal

"Deftly mends the ancient disciplines of theater and theology with contemporary ethnic politics."--Newsday

WINNER OF THE ROLAND BAINTON BOOK PRIZE FOR LITERATURE


"Shapiro's work...will remain unsurpassed for many years to come"--Times Literary Supplement

"A repository of information about a great many matters long in need of the kind of intellectual analysis that Shapiro gives them"--New York Review of Books

"A groundbreaking study of Elizabethan anti-Semitism that offers a shockingly long pedigree for Shakespeare's Shylock"--Kirkus Reviews

"An outstanding example of how a literary thinker can illuminate both our cultural past and our present"--Moment

In a provocative study of the influence of Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare on each other’s plays, poems and legacies, James Shapiro considers the parodic recollections that reveal these rivalries, illuminating the complex ways in which their mutual influence made its presence and pressure felt.


“The approach is eclectic, the prose carefully crafted. It is, in sort, a rare commodity in contemporary criticism—and important analytical study that is accessible not only to scholars but to theater professionals and lay people as well”—Shakespeare Quarterly