REVIEWS
Finding agency in a patriarchy
ts title may be but – set on tropical ‘Verona Island’ and with epigraphs from – Valerie Martin’s new book owes more to Shakespeare than Swift. In this hymn to carnality, the not-so-star-crossed lovers are Carità, a blind prostitute, and Ian Drohan, the rebellious son of a judge, determined to save her. All the harbingers of doom are present – an impetuous killing, a banishment, a priest, a dose of belladonna – yet the narrative arc bends towards the happy-ever-after of.
