In Verona, a city ravaged by plague and political rivalries, a mother mourning the death of her day-old infant enters the household of the powerful Cappelletti family to become the wet-nurse to their newborn baby. As she serves her beloved Juliet over the next fourteen years, the nurse learns the Cappellettis’ darkest secrets. Those secrets—and the nurse’s deep personal grief—erupt across five momentous days of love and loss that destroy a daughter, and a family.

By turns sensual, tragic, and comic, Juliet’s Nurse gives voice to one of literature’s most memorable and distinctive characters, a woman who was both insider and outsider among Verona’s wealthy ruling class. Exploring the romance and intrigue of interwoven loyalties, rivalries, jealousies, and losses only hinted at in Shakespeare’s play, this is a never-before-heard tale of the deepest love in Verona—the love between a grieving woman and the precious child of her heart.

In the tradition of Sarah Dunant, Philippa Gregory, and Geraldine Brooks, Juliet’s Nurse is a rich prequel that reimagines the world’s most cherished tale of love and loss, suffering and survival. – See more at SimonandSchuster.biz.  [provided by Italy Book Tours]

Praise for Juliet’s Nurse:

“Clever, fast-paced, well-researched and beautifully written. Convincing historical details are sprinkled throughout, provoking in the reader the sense of how it must have been in the 14th century. I loved it.”
– Roberta Rich, Internationally bestselling author of The Midwife of Venice and The Harem Midwife

“Lois Leveen’s richly detailed, fascinating novel offers a wholly original and intriguing take on one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays through the imagined life of Juliet’s faithful nurse, whose secret loves and tragedies rival the young lovers’ own.”
– Jennifer Chiaverini, author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival

Award-winning historian, author, and former college professor LOIS LEVEEN holds degrees in history and literature from Harvard, UCLA, and USC. She traveled to Verona, Italy, to research JULIET’S NURSE, as well as apprenticing herself to an urban beekeeping group in her adopted hometown of Portland, Oregon, to write accurately about the life cycle of hives.

Lois has given talks in Finland, France, and throughout the US about the historical research behind JULIET’S NURSE, and about how she approached challenging themes of teen violence, suicide, and plague epidemics in adapting Shakespeare for contemporary readers. Her first novel, The Secrets of Mary Bowser, based on the true story of an African American woman who spied for the Union during the Civil War by posing as a slave in the Confederate White House, was a 2012 Target Book Club pick and is currently being developed into a Broadway musical.

Q & A

1. What is your writing schedule like?

I use a particular laptop computer, not the one I use for email, etc., and I sit in a very comfortable chair, no desk, with at least one and preferably two cats on my lap.  The thesaurus is always in reach, a real book thesaurus which is so much better than the computer’s version.  And I’m surrounded by piles of books and articles so I can research particular points.  I write first thing in the morning, 7 days a week, usually for 3-5 hours.  The rest of the day, I might be reading for a project, or writing *about* writing, doing an interview like this, etc.  Like many writers, I can be crabby when I’m writing, but I’m more crabby if I am not giving myself time to write every day.

2. How did you choose the title?

The title came to me, and it sounded *so* good.  That’s why I reread Shakespeare’s play, to see whether it contained enough for me to build a character and a world and a novel, and boy howdy, did it.  Titling a novel can be so difficult, so it really is amazing to start with a novel that tells a potential reader EXACTLY what the book is about.  And in this case, it told the author, too.  Now I just have to remember to let people know the nurse has a name, Angelica.  It’s actually in the play, but only once, so no one remembers it.

3. Why did you write Juliet’s Nurse?

4. What are you currently reading?

I’ve been rereading The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald, which is so weird and smart, and whenever I read it I wish I could write like that.  Before that it was The Table of Less Valued Knights, by Marie Philips, because we met at a book event in Toronto.  Next is a manuscript a friend wrote that is not yet published, one of the perks of being a novelist!  The rest of my current reading is research for my next novel, and the topic is still top secret, so you will just have to wait a while to find out … patiently, I hope!