Join us for the new book All's Well

Words, Words, Words, the Folger Shakespeare Library Book Club, is pleased to announce the next book discussion – Mona Awad's All's Well on Monday, December 6, at 6:30pm (ET).

Participation is free but registration is requested. Click below to reserve your spot.

All discussions will be held in Zoom and instructions for accessing the conversation will be sent out on the Friday before the session. We will also share the discussion questions, supplemental materials, and suggestions for sips and snacks in advance.

Hope to see you there!

Register to join us for the discussion

Purchase the book

All's Well

by Mona Awad

Monday, December 6 at 6:30pm (Eastern Time)

Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating, chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised, and cost, her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.

That’s when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda’s past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what’s coming to them, and the invisible, doubted pain that’s kept her from the spotlight is made known.

All’s Well is the story of a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.

Why did we choose this book?

The Folger Shakespeare Library's collection explores not only Shakespeare's life and works, but also the plays' historical context, source material, critical and performance histories, and the ways in which they inspire and are adapted by contemporary novelists. All's Well is a brand new novel deeply tied to multiple works and themes of Shakespeare.

Listen to the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast as author Mona Awad tells us about her new novel, which combines All's Well That Ends Well with Macbeth to tell the darkly funny story of a university theater professor with chronic hip and back pain and a mutinous cast.

Listen to the Podcast

Not able to join us for our discussion of The Porpoise by Mark Haddon? The Folger Spotlight has introductory and supplemental material—including discussion questions—to help you explore the book or even host your own conversation.

Introductory Material

Folger Resources

Collection Items

Looking for even more book inspiration? Station Eleven, a new HBO miniseries based on Emily St. John Mandel's novel, premieres on December 16, 2021. This moving story about the healing power of art was our very first book club pick in August 2020 and you can find related materials on The Folger Spotlight.

Revisit 'Station Eleven'

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