The Pretender
[A] poignant odyssey ... Offers a new beginning fashioned by the hand of a man whose life till now has been subject to the designs of others. It’s so suitable and (cautiously) hopeful that readers may (almost) wish for a sequel.
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Ms. Harkin takes this incident as the starting point for a rollicking story that’s part fact, part lively speculation, and along the way asks some probing questions about the nature of identity ... Fantastically irreverent ... In a novel full of laugh-out-loud moments, Ms. Harkin is at her subversive best when unmasking the false pieties and the skulduggery of the Tudor age ... The common people...are just as skillfully drawn and never lapse into stereotypes ... This sympathetic and brilliantly executed book beguiles to the very end.
Dazzling, jocular ... A stylish, profane, hilarious read, and Harkin is the proverbial writer to watch.
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