The Ghost Theatre (Hardcover)

A wild and hallucinatory reimagining of Elizabethan London, with its bird worshippers, famed child actors, and the queen herself, Mat Osman’s TheGhost Theatre is a dazzling historical novel about the stage, magic, and the dangers of all-consuming love.

London, 1601—a golden city soon to erupt in flames. Shay is a messenger-girl, falconer, and fortune teller who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city’s fabled Blackfriars Theatre, where a cast of press-ganged boys perform for London’s gentry. When the pair meet, Shay falls in love with the performances—and with Nonesuch himself. As their bond deepens, they create the Ghost Theatre, an underground troupe that performs fantastical plays in the city’s hidden corners.

The growing fame of the troupe fans the flames of rebellion among the city’s outcasts, drawing Shay and Nonesuch into the dark web of the Elizabethan court. Embattled, with the plague on the rise throughout the country, the queen seeks a reading from Shay, a moment that unleashes chaos not only in Shay’s life but across the whole of England, too.

A fever dream full of prophecy and anarchy, gutter rats and bird gods, Mat Osman’s The Ghost Theatre is a wild ride from the rooftops of Elizabethan London to its dark underbelly, and a luminous meditation on double lives and fluid identities and the bewitching, transformative nature of art and power, with a bittersweet love affair at its heart. Set amid the vividly rendered England of Osman’s imagination and written in rich, seductive prose, The Ghost Theatre will have readers under its spell from the very first page.

Praise

“Deliciously immersive, wildly imaginative, and not to be missed—Mat Osman is a true Renaissance man.”
M. L. Rio, author of If We Were Villains
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“A story of rebellion and magic, of mysticism and broken love in the streets and theatre and rooftops of Elizabethan London. Beautifully written, delicate, and sad. I’m still haunted by it.”
Mariana Enríquez, author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Things We Lost in the Fire
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"Smart, bold, and original, The Ghost Theatre brings to life a slantwise Elizabethan London where appearance is everything and nothing you see can be trusted. Every page is alive with the heady, dangerous energy of an opening night, and Shay and Nonesuch are unforgettable. For readers who like their historical fiction with imagination and flair, this book is a must-read."
Allison Epstein, author of A Tip for the Hangman
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"The star of the show in The Ghost Theatre is Osman's fanciful rendering of Elizabethan England, sometimes dreamlike, sometimes apocalyptic, depicted with such a wealth of sensory detail that it blurs the line between memory and fantasy."
Dexter Palmer, author of Mary Toft; Or, The Rabbit Queen
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"Superb. . . . The Ghost Theatre finds its way into the hidden corners of Elizabethan London, telling the story of a group of misfit actors. Beautifully written and completely convincing."
Observer
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“Combining breathtaking world-building with vivid characterization . . . An imaginative tour-de-force of theatre, magic, love, and betrayal.”
Bookseller
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