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Shakespeare for Squirrels: A Novel Hardcover – May 12, 2020
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New York Times Bestseller!
Shakespeare meets Dashiell Hammett in this wildly entertaining murder mystery from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore—an uproarious, hardboiled take on the Bard’s most performed play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring Pocket, the hero of Fool and The Serpent of Venice, along with his sidekick, Drool, and pet monkey, Jeff.
Set adrift by his pirate crew, Pocket of Dog Snogging—last seen in The Serpent of Venice—washes up on the sun-bleached shores of Greece, where he hopes to dazzle the Duke with his comedic brilliance and become his trusted fool.
But the island is in turmoil. Egeus, the Duke’s minister, is furious that his daughter Hermia is determined to marry Demetrius, instead of Lysander, the man he has chosen for her. The Duke decrees that if, by the time of the wedding, Hermia still refuses to marry Lysander, she shall be executed . . . or consigned to a nunnery. Pocket, being Pocket, cannot help but point out that this decree is complete bollocks, and that the Duke is an egregious weasel for having even suggested it. Irritated by the fool’s impudence, the Duke orders his death. With the Duke’s guards in pursuit, Pocket makes a daring escape.
He soon stumbles into the wooded realm of the fairy king Oberon, who, as luck would have it, IS short a fool. His jester Robin Goodfellow—the mischievous sprite better known as Puck—was found dead. Murdered. Oberon makes Pocket an offer he can’t refuse: he will make Pocket his fool and have his death sentence lifted if Pocket finds out who killed Robin Goodfellow. But as anyone who is even vaguely aware of the Bard’s most performed play ever will know, nearly every character has a motive for wanting the mischievous sprite dead.
With too many suspects and too little time, Pocket must work his own kind of magic to find the truth, save his neck, and ensure that all ends well.
A rollicking tale of love, magic, madness, and murder, Shakespeare for Squirrels is a Midsummer Night’s noir—a wicked and brilliantly funny good time conjured by the singular imagination of Christopher Moore.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWilliam Morrow
- Publication dateMay 12, 2020
- Dimensions6 x 0.97 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100062434020
- ISBN-13978-0062434029
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"It takes a certain amount of guts and wild abandon to recast a Shakespeare comedy as a hard-boiled detective story, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s master satirist Moore, whose gift for funny business apparently knows no bounds. . . . A welcome return of a fan-favorite character in a romp of a tale that will delight not only mystery buffs but also fantasy fanatics, and, of course, Bard lovers." — Booklist (starred review)
"Moore’s trademark humor is on full display with his cast of strangely lovable characters. This is Shakespeare with an edge and will not only appeal to Moore’s fans but garner new ones." — Library Journal (starred review)
"Nobody writes mystery novels quite like Christopher Moore . . . . As hilarious as A Midsummer Night’s Dream is to begin with, Moore adds a contemporary dose of sly humor that I think would impress the Bard." — Bookpage (starred review)
“[I]n Shakespeare for Squirrels . . . Pocket travels to Athens and gets mixed up with the events and characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and they are fully more fantastical than even Shakespeare imagined. Moore’s Athens is as historically and geographically accurate as Shakespeare’s (which is to say not at all), and it’s filled with not only fairies and a man turned into an ass, but goblins, Amazon warriors, animal transformations, a breathtaking conception of the Fairy King’s Night Palace that could never be realized on any stage,.” — Austen Tichenor, Shakespeare & Beyond, Folger Shakespeare Library
“Buckle in for Shakespeare for Squirrels, an uproarious take on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—transformed into a murder mystery. . . A funny, fast-paced, and wild read.” — Huffington Post
"Christopher Moore has written a wonderful diversion for hard times. Even Shakespeare would have appreciated the jokes." — Wall Street Journal
"A hilariously noir tale of love, magic and murder." — USA Today
“Manic parodist Moore…returns with a rare gift for Shakespeare fans who think A Midsummer Night’s Dream would be perfect if only it were a little more madcap. . . . A kicky, kinky, wildly inventive 21st century mashup with franker language and a higher body count than Hamlet.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This cheeky homage will please lovers of Shakespeare and camp.” — Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Christopher Moore is the author of seventeen previous novels, including Shakespeare for Squirrels, Noir, Secondhand Souls, Sacré Bleu, Fool, and Lamb. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Product details
- Publisher : William Morrow; First Edition (May 12, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062434020
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062434029
- Item Weight : 15.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.97 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #210,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,007 in Humorous Fantasy (Books)
- #1,901 in Humorous Fiction
- #2,839 in Historical Mystery
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Christopher Moore is the author of 15 previous novels: Practical Demonkeeping, Coyote Blue, Bloodsucking Fiends, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Lamb, Fluke, The Stupidest Angel, A Dirty Job, You Suck, Fool, Bite Me, Sacré Bleu, The Serpent of Venice, and Secondhand Souls. He lives in San Francisco.
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I'm not sure how I managed to get through high school and college with Romeo and Juliet being the only Shakespeare book that I read. I know, I need to remedy that, or just read some more Christopher Moore books and learn the stories from there.
That being said, I think I would probably get a whole lot more out of the story if I had read A Midsummer Night's Dream - what this book is loosely based on. But even without that to go on, I still loved this book.
The combination of bawdy and yet juvenile humor completely appeals to me. It was the perfect escape for everything going on today. Plenty of sex (nothing graphic at all!) since apparently fairies love a good frolic, plenty of humor, and enough Shakespeare that I can say I have an idea of what A Midsummer Night's Dream is about.
This book is the exception. For those not completely initiated with Shakespeare (for which I am one of those people), the other two books in this series work absolutely perfectly whether you are a layman in Shakespeare or not. This book seems to rely on the knowledge of the subject matter a little more. For that reason, it felt a little meandering (plot-wise) and it had trouble holding my attention. 3 stars.
If you are a Shakespeare purist this book is not for you.
If you like plot twists and chaos; if you like a resolution to conflict that comes out of nowhere; if you are a fan of Christopher Moore and Pocket...then this is a very enjoyable and fast paced read.
However, I liked 80-85% of the 2019 Film version of CATS, which (if Rotten Tomatoes can be believed) it appears 80-85% of the rest of the world did not; so there is that.
Top reviews from other countries
Funny, entertaining and easy to read.
In general I find all three of his novels set in twisted Shakespeare land, of which this is the third, to be some of his weakest work. Perhaps this is because I am not the greatest fan of Shakespeare. (I now await the angry mobs at my door). If you love Shakespeare and A Midsummer's Night Dream you may find Shakespeare for Squirrels the good solid 5 stars I couldn't quite bring myself to give it. On the other hand if you can't laugh at the things you love then maybe you should look to another novel.







