Shakespeare's Daughter by Peter W. Hassinger

Peak must learn to navigate the extreme and exotic terrain but negotiate a code of ethics among men. To save him, his long-lost Everest-trekking dad appears with a plan for the duo to make a life in Katmandu-a smokescreen to make Peak become the youngest person in history to summit Mount Everest. 10+)ĭare-devil mountain-climber Peak Marcello (14), decides to scale the Woolworth Building and lands in jail. There’s spirited talk about language, theater, and most especially about music, and the plot elopes with ease.

The musician William Byrd and the persecution of Catholics fuel a dénouement that finds Susanna and her Tom going off to Italy, where both can sing freely. Hassinger plays intriguingly with what is known about this time and place: Shakespeare is uneasy with his family and distracted the dark lady Emilia plays an important role Susanna’s mother Anne is a tightly wound woman tied to her home place.

She is also captivated by Tom Cole, a chorister who practices his Catholic faith in secret. When her adorable small brother Hamnet dies, she resolves to go to London to experience her father’s life, and to find a place where her voice might be heard. Blessed with her father’s wit and a pure soprano, 14-year-old Susanna longs to sing, and the choir at Stratford allows her little. A lively fictional account of Susanna, the eldest child of Will Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's Daughter by Peter W. Hassinger