Today in Bookish and Literary History, November 1

1604 Othello by Shakespeare is first presented (UK)

1611 The Tempest by Shakespeare is performed at court in front of James I at Whitehall Palace - its first recorded performance (UK)

1904 John Bull's Other Island by George Bernard Shaw premieres in London (Ireland)

John Bull's Other Island is a comedy about Ireland, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1904. Shaw himself was born in Dublin, yet this is one of only two plays of his where he thematically returned to his homeland, the other being O'Flaherty V.C.

1935 Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot (UK)

T. S. Eliot's most famous drama, a retelling of the murder of the archbishop of Canterbury

1983 The Rape of Shavi by Buchi Emecheta (UK) (My Review) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

An allegorical tale, in which a collision between Westerners and tribal members imperils the stoic traditionalism of the Africans.

2005 Comfort & Joy by Kristin Hannah

Joy Candellaro once loved Christmas more than any other time of the year. Now, as the holiday approaches, she is at a crossroads in her life; recently divorced and alone, she can’t summon the old enthusiasm for celebrating. So without telling anyone, she buys a ticket and boards a plane bound for the beautiful Pacific Northwest. When an unexpected detour takes her deep into the woods of the Olympic rainforest, Joy makes a bold decision to leave her ordinary life behind—to just walk away—and thus begins an adventure unlike any she could have imagined.

2006 The Blue by Maggie Gee (UK)

The actors in these short stories quietly and unobtrusively assume their place in the world. An older woman rids herself of social shackles in the hypnotic title story as she moves toward the sea and freedom, a man packs in his day job to sell miniature suitcases, while a woman converts a freelance evangelist after their plane nearly crashes.

2009 Lustrum by Robert Harris (UK)

Rome, 63 BC . In a city on the brink of acquiring a vast empire, seven men are struggling for power. Cicero is consul, Caesar his ruthless young rival, Pompey the republic's greatest general, Crassus its richest man, Cato a political fanatic, Catilina a psychopath, Clodius an ambitious playboy.

2015 Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu 

Based on Cărtărescu's own experience as a teacher, Solenoid submerges us in the mundane details of a diarist's life and spirals into an existential account of history, philosophy and mathematics. Grounded in the reality of communist Romania, it grapples with frightening health care, the absurdities of the education system and the struggles of family life, while investigating other universes and forking paths.

• Winner of The Los Angeles Times Book Prize 2022
• Longlisted for The International Booker Prize 2025
• Winner of The Dublin Literary Award

2018 Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere by Jeanette Winterson (UK)

Examining recent women's rights movements, the worlds of politics, technology and social media and changes in the law, Winterson calls out all the ways in which women still face discrimination and disadvantage. Like the women who won the right to vote, we need to shout up, reach out, be courageous and finish the job.

2019 The Secret Guests by John Banville (Ireland)

As London endures nightly German bombings, Britain’s secret service whisks the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret from England, seeking safety for the young royals on an old estate in Ireland.

2021 The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai 

A luminous new collection of stories from a young writer who “has brought his culture’s rich history, mythology, and lyricism to American letters.” —Sandra Cisneros

• Finalist for The 2022 National Book Award For Fiction
• Winner of The 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize
• Winner of The 2023 O. Henry Prize

2022 Dr. No by Percival Everett 

A sly, madcap novel about supervillains and nothing, really, from an American novelist whose star keeps rising

• PEN/Jean Stein Book Award

2022 The Islands: Stories by Dionne Irving

Powerful stories that explore the legacy of colonialism, and issues of race, immigration, sexual discrimination, and class in the lives of Jamaican women across London, Panama, France, Jamaica, Florida and more

• Shortlisted for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize
• Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
• A Hurston Wright Legacy Award Nominee
• Longlisted for the 2023 New American Voices Award

2025 What She Saw by Mary Burton

Cold case reporter Sloane Grayson has come to a small mountain town in Virginia to solve a mystery.