All the World’s a Stage

All that LILY (70), a self-proclaimed poet and a librarian, expects to enjoy in retirement is slow mornings sipping coffee, finally learning how to garden, and perhaps reading the stack of books on her nightstand. But on the day of her retirement, an unexpected phone call from her doctor leaves her with an ominous diagnosis. The same day, she receives a once-in-a-lifetime offer to travel to England for a writer’s fellowship.

She abandons the simple routines and comfort that she has always known to embark on one last great adventure. She travels to England, arrives at the writer’s fellowship (which turns out to be in a castle), and befriends several other quirky writers, especially one in particular. She’s too old for romance, though, right? On her first morning exploring the castle, she stumbles upon a secret library. She selects an old copy of Shakespeare’s As You Like It from an antiquated bookshelf and curls up in an armchair, ready to spend the rest of the day reading. She accidentally drifts off. When she wakes up, she discovers she has been transported into the war-torn 17th century as a 14-year-old girl.

As she rushes around the castle, she realizes it is preparing for a siege. As she tries to understand how to survive her circumstances, she befriends another young girl, Mary, who offers to help hide her from the King’s court. However, when she is discovered at supper and is accused of being a spy, she realizes the only way to survive is to pretend to be a bard in service to the king. For the next few nights, she tells fantastical stories to the King’s court and soon becomes known throughout the land as the Bard Shake of speare. She travels back and forth between the fellowship and 16th-century England. At the fellowship, she discovers deeper friendships than she has ever known and slowly begins falling in love with a fellow writer. As her relationships in both worlds deepen, she is soon unable to control the length of time in each world.

ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE follows a dying poet as she grapples with the pull between two worlds. She has to decide whether she would rather live in the 16th century as a young girl and a famous storyteller with her entire life ahead of her, or remain in the modern world with only a year to live, but with the woman who may just be the love of her life.