BOY

Ell Potter delivers a smashing performance of Galland's engrossing novel. The title character is Sander Cooke, an androgynous actor with the Chamberlain's Men in Elizabethan London whose brilliant performances in female roles have made him a celebrity. His best friend, Joan, longs to study, but scholarship is forbidden because she's a woman. So Joan employs cross-dressing to sneak into Sir Francis Bacon's intellectual forums. Being found out could cost her dearly. Potter makes the novel's gender fluidity believable. She highlights Sander's anxiety as he attempts to move into male roles and handles Joan's hunger for knowledge with subtlety and nuance. Potter also captures the backstage workings of an Elizabethan theater troupe: the politics, prejudices, rivalries, and romances. Top-notch historical fiction. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2025]