The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare — Arliss Ryan

AN INVENTIVE AND VIBRANT HISTORICAL NOVEL ABOUT THE WOMAN WHO DARED TO BE THE EQUAL OF THE BARD OF AVON.

Anne Hathaway is known as the woman William Shakespeare was forced to marry . . . and soon left behind. Now, in this vivid reimagining of history, Anne emerges as a smart, witty, resourceful woman who discovers she has talents of her own.

Anne is weighing her prospects for marriage when a summer dalliance with cocky Will Shakespeare, the poetry-writing son of a rural glove maker, lands her pregnant and wed. She loves Will, but his thwarted dreams make them both unhappy. When he joins a traveling acting troupe and moves to London, Anne leaves their three children in his parents' care and boldly follows him.

Taking up a new identity at Will's side, Anne supports his career as a struggling actor by sewing costumes and transcribing manuscripts in the rough-and-tumble world of London's theaters. As he finds his true calling in writing, Anne's own literary skills begin to flower, leading to a secret collaboration that makes Will the foremost playwright in Elizabethan England.

Dramatizing a marriage born of passion and strained by ambition, Arliss Ryan's fascinating, historical novel chronicles a love affair for the ages -- and the story of a woman who dares to fulfill her own exciting destiny.