The Porpoise

by Haddon, Mark | Oceans & seas
Published 05/03/2026 by Vintage Publishing (Vintage Classics) in the United Kingdom as part of the Shakespeare Retold series
Paperback | 336 pages
197 x 128 x 25mm | 236g

Shakespeare’s Pericles is transformed by Mark Haddon into a vivid, breathtaking adventure that zooms between antiquity and the present day. A motherless girl grows up in isolated luxury, hidden from the world by her wealthy father. She believes their life together is normal – but as time passes, she has a growing sense that something between them is very wrong.

She cannot escape, so she seeks solace in her books. Her favourite tales are those that conjure ancient worlds – of angry gods and heroic mortals, one of whom will some day come to her rescue.

Soon, she will forget where the page ends and her mind begins.

‘Just downright brilliant... a transcendent, transporting experience’ Observer‘A full-throttle blast of storytelling mastery’ Max PorterSHAKESPEARE RETOLD: Time travel. Zombies. Power-hungry media moguls. This is Shakespeare as you’ve never seen him before: nine iconic plays transformed by the best novelists of our time, with covers by Michael Craig-Martin.