John O'Donnell – författare

In 1517, Sweden is on the brink of declaring independence from Denmark, and Martin Luther has posted on a church door in distant Saxony incendiary views that will soon set Europe afire. Sweden''s arch-patriot Hemming Gadh has arranged the coincidence. The Danish king Hamlet is plotting to kidnap and deliver Luther to Rome and the stake in exchange for Vatican support of Denmark''s depredations upon Sweden. Gadh knows that the monk''s heresy is the key to his country''s liberation. Sweden must keep Luther alive and encourage his schismatic diatribe.

To fulfill that mission, Gadh engages young Magnus Vasabrother of Sweden''s future kingas protector and confidant of the controversial theologian. Disguised as a Norwegian student named Horatio, Magnus enrolls at Wittenberg''s university. There he encounters the Danish king''s dissolute son Prince Hamlet and embarks upon adventures that will determine not only Sweden''s fate but Europe''s future. Meanwhile, Gadh, Horatio''s mentor and Sweden''s master counterspy, has embedded himself at Elsinore as the evil king''s chancellor Polonius. When King Hamlet''s atrocities culminate in the infamous Bloodbath of Stockholm, Gadh and MagnusPolonius and Horatioswear revenge upon the Dane, his bastard son and their kingdom.

Gadh summons Magnus to Elsinore, where Horatio falls in love with Queen Gertrude, recognizes the recently deceased king''s brother Claudius as a great and kind ruler, witnesses Polonius''s death at the prince''s hand, and finallywhen called upon to duel the Black Prince to the deathfinds his path between patriotism and romantic love, obedience and autonomy, vengeance and forgiveness.

Skillfully written, entertainingly intelligent and historically authentic, Revenge At Elsinore mesmerizes readers with a vibrant romantic adventure that also provides the key that unlocks mysteries that have puzzled Shakespearean scholars for centuries.

"Love, loss, memory, history, place are familiar preoccupations in John O’Donnell’s work; and, though poetry’s subject matter may be similar, a unique voice explores these themes in unique ways. The poems take us to very different places: Shakespeare in Ireland, the Holocaust, pioneering in Oregon, a grandmother’s Alzheimer’s. Here is a poet who searches for truth, and whether O’Donnell is remembering “me, surly in a sleeping-bag, fifteen” or the Omagh atrocity, the voice is always direct and honest, while capturing the close-up and personal with a wonderful fluency. O’Donnell’s poetry explores the steady and steadying presence of love within a family context but it also gives us the bigger picture, pictures of injustice, turmoil, ‘the unfathomable’ and what O’Donnell calls ‘a deep darker than ink’.  Turn to these enriching and engaging poems in Sunlight: New and Selected Poems; the poems will turn to you. And you will be rewarded."—Niall MacMonagle, from the Introduction