HEARTS ON THE TABLE

When a U-boat torpedo separates them, Violet Farris and her transgender twin, Seb, find themselves in a Twelfth Night–inspired tangle.

Fleeing their abusive father along with her brother, Violet ends up alone on the Dalmatian island of Illyria in 1915. Passing herself off as “Sebastijan,” the 17-year-old half-English, half-Sicilian feminist finds refuge with 18-year-old Teo Dukarić, who has studied Marxism and is the anti-war son of a wealthy landowner. Romantic Teo’s patriarchal biases are on full display. Violet tries to beat women’s rights into his head, but he persists in wooing nearby gentlewoman Olivia Kos with terrible love poetry despite her evident lack of interest. As his “errand boy,” Violet meets and accidentally charms Olivia instead (both women are queer). Meanwhile, Olivia’s neurodivergent sister, Faustina, expresses all that she sees in verse, including her cruel cousin’s plans to commit her to an asylum and marry Olivia. In well-built settings that exude sensory detail, the author expertly weaves a complex web with strands that include wartime events and historical attitudes towards queerness, women’s rights, and autism. Metallo’s interpretations of Shakespearean situations and characters are creative and insightful; with their compelling depths and flaws, all the characters make mistakes that result in soul-searching heartbreak. They each seek a world where they can live—and be seen and valued—as their authentic selves.

To thine own self be true: a masterful reimagining of Shakespearean characters.