The Porpoise
Published on 5. March 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-5299-7970-1 (ISBN)
Description
Shakespeare's Pericles is transformed by Mark Haddon into a vivid, breathtaking adventure that zooms between antiquity and the present day.
A motherless girl grows up in isolated luxury, hidden from the world by her wealthy father. She believes their life together is normal - but as time passes, she has a growing sense that something between them is very wrong.
She cannot escape, so she seeks solace in her books. Her favourite tales are those that conjure ancient worlds - of angry gods and heroic mortals, one of whom will some day come to her rescue.
Soon, she will forget where the page ends and her mind begins.
'Just downright brilliant... a transcendent, transporting experience' Observer
'A full-throttle blast of storytelling mastery' Max Porter
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.
A motherless girl grows up in isolated luxury, hidden from the world by her wealthy father. She believes their life together is normal - but as time passes, she has a growing sense that something between them is very wrong.
She cannot escape, so she seeks solace in her books. Her favourite tales are those that conjure ancient worlds - of angry gods and heroic mortals, one of whom will some day come to her rescue.
Soon, she will forget where the page ends and her mind begins.
'Just downright brilliant... a transcendent, transporting experience' Observer
'A full-throttle blast of storytelling mastery' Max Porter
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.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 125 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
238 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5299-7970-1 (9781529979701)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Mark Haddon is a writer and artist. His bestselling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) won seventeen literary prizes, was translated into forty-five languages, and went on to become an award-winning stage adaptation by Simon Stephens. His most recent works of fiction include a novel, The Porpoise (2019), and a collection of fables and stories, Dogs and Monsters (2024).