Biographies & Memoirs

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

by Alba Donati

available now, hardcover, Scribner

Donati was used to her hectic life working as a book publicist in Italy but she was ready to make a change. One day she decided to return to the small village in the Tuscan hills where she was born. There she opened a tiny but enchanting bookshop in a lovely little cottage on a hill. With fewer than 200 yearround residents, the shop seemed unlikely to succeed, but it soon sparked the enthusiasm of book lovers both nearby and across Italy. After surviving a fire and pandemic restrictions, the “Bookshop on the Hill” soon became a refuge and destination for an ever-growing community.

Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It

by Greg Marshall

available in June, hardcover, Abrams Press

Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies : How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature

by Elizabeth Winkler

available now, hardcover, Simon & Schuster

As Winkler considers the writers and thinkers who have grappled with the riddle of the plays’ origins, she explores who may perhaps have been hiding behind his name. A forgotten woman? A disgraced aristocrat? A government spy? Hovering over the mystery are Shakespeare’s plays themselves, with their love for mistaken identities, disguises, and things never quite being what they seem. As she interviews scholars and skeptics, Winkler’s interest turns to the larger problem of historical truth—and of how human imperfections (bias, blindness, subjectivity) shape our construction of the past.

Greg Marshall’s early years were pretty bizarre. Rewind the VHS tapes and you’ll see a lopsided teenager limping across a high school stage, or in a wheelchair after leg surgeries, pondering why he’s crushing on half of the Utah Jazz. Add to this footage a mom clacking away at her newspaper column between chemos, a dad with ALS, and a cast of foulmouthed siblings. Fast forward the tape and you’ll find Marshall happily settled into his life as a gay man only to discover he’s been living in another closet his whole life: He has cerebral palsy, a diagnosis that has been kept from him since birth.