Shakespeare’s timeless tale of doomed young lovers is transported from 14th-century Italy to the steaming tropics of 1950’s Verona Island in Valerie Martin’s Mrs Gulliver. The eponymous heroine is no wide-eyed romantic, however, but a former prostitute turned brothel owner with a formidable business acumen and an admirable concern for her girls.

The Juliet of the piece comes in the unlikely form of Caritá, a blind, fiercely ambitious young woman who sells herself to escape poverty. Her Romeo – an idealistic, unsettlingly intense university student who hates his father and dreams of becoming a monk – is smitten from the start. But is it really Caritá he loves, or just the idea of rescuing her? 

The decision to watch their tempestuous love story unfold through the eyes of a wise, world-weary Madam is an interesting one, though often the characters are so unrecognisable that many readers – myself included – will be forgiven for missing the intended comparison altogether. Instead, it’s Mrs. Gulliver’s own tentative, sensual love story with a dashing, Rhett Butler-esque rogue that captures the imagination and brings the book to life. An intriguing, well-written gem, it slips down as sweetly as a sonnet.