All's Well: A Novel
From the author of Bunny, which Margaret Atwood hails as “genius,” comes a “wild, and exhilarating” (Lauren Groff, New York Times bestselling author) novel about a theater professor who is convinced staging Shakespeare’s most maligned play will remedy all that ails her—but at what cost?
Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.
That’s when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda’s past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what’s coming to them, and the invisible doubted pain that’s kept her from the spotlight is made known.
All’s Well is a “fabulous novel” (Mary Karr, author of Lit) about a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.
Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.
That’s when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda’s past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what’s coming to them, and the invisible doubted pain that’s kept her from the spotlight is made known.
All’s Well is a “fabulous novel” (Mary Karr, author of Lit) about a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.
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Community Reviews
Awful, I couldn’t wait for it to end. Iam not familiar with the Shakespeare play, so cannot comment on its relationship to that work.
Initially I was sympathetic to the main character, this soon evaporated, as the as the frankly painful novel, rehashed the same ground again and again.
I’m not a Shakesperean or anything so maybe I missed the metaphors and the tie ins. But overall I enjoyed this book for the most part, the ending was a little bit confusing to me.
The author does a great job at describing what Miranda is going through, I found myself feeling the sadness and despair Miranda felt through her pain in the first part of the book.
I couldn’t put this book down, I loved how fascinating the story was, I wanted to see where Miranda was going.
At the end, I did feel like it was a bit anticlimactic but I still enjoyed reading it and would recommend it.
The author does a great job at describing what Miranda is going through, I found myself feeling the sadness and despair Miranda felt through her pain in the first part of the book.
I couldn’t put this book down, I loved how fascinating the story was, I wanted to see where Miranda was going.
At the end, I did feel like it was a bit anticlimactic but I still enjoyed reading it and would recommend it.
One of my favorite books, loved the symbolism, use of Shakespeare, and the representation for chronic pain.
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