Gap of Time

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is brilliantly reinvented by Howard Jacobson, in his merciless, sharp and funny story of revenge, justice and antisemitism.

With an absent wife and a daughter going off the rails, wealthy art collector and philanthropist Simon Strulovitch is in need of someone to talk to. So when he meets Shylock at a cemetery in Cheshire's Golden Triangle, he invites him back to his house. It's the beginning of a remarkable friendship...

Howard Jacobson's version of The Merchant of Venice bends time to its own advantage as it asks what it means to be a father, a Jew and a merciful human being in the modern world.

'Inspired...It does what any good literary subversion should do: deepens and enhances one's appreciation of the original' Guardian

'Jacobson's prose has the sort of elastic precision you only get from a writer who is truly in command… There's also deep and sincere soul-searching going on here' Independent

SHAKESPEARE RETOLD: Time travel. Zombies. Power-hungry media moguls. This is Shakespeare as you've never seen him before: nine iconic plays transformed by the best novelists of our time, with covers by Michael Craig-Martin.