Rereading: KING OF SHADOWS by Susan Cooper

Cover illustration by John Clapp

Best known for her “The Dark is Rising” series, Susan Cooper wrote other fine fantasies like this one. It’s more historical than fantasy, but hinges on a kind of time travel.

Nat Field lives with his Aunt Jen in North Carolina since his parents have passed, but his passion is acting. He’s been chosen for a select troupe, The American Company of Boys, who will go to London to perform in the newly built historical replica of Shakespeare’s theater. Nat is to play Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When the company gets there and begins rehearsing, Nat has some dizzy spells, and a bad headache, and is put to bed. When he wakes up, he’s in Shakespeare’s time, and in Shakespeare’s own company preparing to perform Dream for Queen Elizabeth the First in the Globe Theatre, the original one. Nat is understandably confused by all this, but when he meets Shakespeare himself and realizes they can be friends as well as acting together (Will is playing Oberon), he throws himself into the role, even though a few other players are unfriendly. It seems that he’s somehow changed places with another boy also named Nat Field. That boy is in modern London, and very ill with The Plague. Once that’s discovered, he’s hospitalized and quarantined.

In the past, Nat makes new friends, and proves himself as an actor and tumbler to the company’s satisfaction. But can he really perform on stage in front of an audience unlike any he’s known, and what will happen to him after that?

Great story, the historical times feel authentic, and the characters come to life. Recommended.

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