New Boy

In New Boy, author Tracy Chevalier, best-known for her work Girl with a Pearl Earring, demonstrates her skill with language and storytelling in this powerful retelling of Othello.

Set in 1970s D.C., Osei is the new kid, facing his fifth new school in five years, and immediately hits it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But Ian can’t stand to see the budding relationship between the popular girl and the black kid, and sets out to destroy their new friendship. By the end of the day, no one will be left unscathed.

Chevalier possesses a great talent for invoking a sense of time and place in her novels, and this one is no exception. From the flowered legs of bell-bottom jeans to the smack of double-dutch ropes on the playground, New Boy captures the spirit of not only the era, with it’s casual racism, but the essence of a ‘70s childhood as well. A masterful and powerful retelling of this classic story that takes the original to new places.