Okay look, I know there has been an onslaught of Shakespeare Anything "because 400th", but the Hogarth Shakespeare Project is actually a great thing. A bunch of award-winning authors are writing novels based on Shakespeare plays. Like peanut butter and chocolate, put two great things together and there's just no downside.

Jeanette Winterson's novel is called 'The Gap of Time', based on 'The Winter's Tale'. I have my own reasons for wanting to read this particular story at this particular time. But I'm compelled to tell everyone I know to read it too, whether or not you ever intend to see a production of this play again.

Winterson's modern take will crack this old fairy tale open like crazy for you. In London's financial district: a digital camera lens into Leontes' insane and terrifying jealousy. In Louisiana: piano bars, car repairs, and families. The confusing and complex nature of love.

And in the end, the possibility that what is lost can, in fact, be found.