Review
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"High school, with its crushes, insecurities and
politics, works as the perfect backdrop to Shakespeare's original
plot... New Boy, with its angsty teenagers, racial frictions and
a magnificently ed out antagonist, is a tense and tight
read... It can be read in a single afternoon and it really is a
heady rollercoaster of emotions, right to the breathless and
shocking last line" (Tanya Sweeney Irish Independent)
"This is a compact and intense read full of twists, turns and
intrigue. The fast-moving shifting allegiances and rivalries that
dominate the playground provide a backdrop full of heightened
emotion that cleverly reflects the atmosphere of the original
play" (Mernie Gilmore Daily Express)
"Chevalier is at her best when describing the tenderness of young
love or conveying the inner thoughts of her protagonists ...
Chevalier deftly and succinctly gives [her characters] all more
of a backstory than Shakespeare ever allowed ... transposing this
story to the playground makes absolute sense. It is of interest
as an exercise in illustrating the universality of the original,
and works equally well as a standalone piece which tells of a
tightly wound, ly imagined situation hurtling towards
inevitable tragedy" (Kirsty McLuckie Scotland on Sunday)
"What Chevalier has done is recast the play to illuminate the
peculiar trials of our era... a fascinating exercise ... In
Chevalier's handling, the insidious manipulations of Othello
translate smoothly to the dynamics of a sixth-grade playground,
with all its skinned-knee passions and hop-scotch rules ... How
Chevalier renders Iago's scheme into the terms of a modern-day
playground provides some wicked delight. She's immensely
inventive about it all" (Ron Charles Washington Post)
"Chevalier’s modern interpretation of Othello deftly explores
race relations in the schoolyard in 1970s suburban Washington,
and captures how it feels to be an outsider" (Anita Sethi i, 2017
Books of the Year)
"Othello as a Seventies schoolyard drama? Yes, it works
marvellously. The emotions of emerging adolescence are a potent
brew, with friendships, rivalries, budding sexuality, and the
desire to fit in combining unflinchingly with the racism of the
teachers (and some of the pupils). This is an evocative retelling
of Shakespeare, and his characters’ interactions and motivations
fit surprisingly well into the brutal world of childhood" (Joanne
Harris)
"Powerful and intriguing" (Deidre O'Brien Sunday Mirror)
"To add urgency to an everyday story of high-school bullying,
[Chevalier] compresses the action into the cycle of a school day.
It's a clever strategy, executed with typical omb by the
gifted author of Girl With a Pearl Earring... Her New Boy is an
often inspired riff on adolescence and alienation" (Robert McCrum
The Observer)
"New Boy is in the tradition of movies such as 10 Things I Hate
About You or West Side Story, or Toni Morrison's play Desdemona
... A deft examination of the accommodations a boy such as Osei
must make wherever he goes ... Chevalier is delicate in her
description of the emotional and mental cost of all this careful
avoidance" (Ellah Wakatama Allfrey The Guardian)
"Tracy Chevalier's powerful drama of friends torn apart by
jealousy, bullying and betrayal will leave you reeling
" (MumsNet)
From the Inside Flap
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‘O felt her presence behind him like a fire at his
back.’
Arriving at his fourth school in six years, diplomat’s son Osei
Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day –
so he’s lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in
school. But one student can’t stand to witness this budding
relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the
black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school
and its key players – teachers and pupils alike – will never be
the same again.
The tragedy of Othello is transposed to a 1970s’ suburban
Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with
each other before lunchtime, and practise a casual racism picked
up from their parents and teachers. Watching over the shoulders
of four 11-year-olds – Osei, Dee, Ian and his reluctant
girlfriend Mimi – Tracy Chevalier's powerful drama of friends
torn apart by jealousy, bullying and betrayal will leave you
reeling.