Where can you meet a Shakespearean hero to talk to him and invite him to your home? The hero of the novel, Simon Strulovitch, meets Shylock from The Merchant of Venice in a cemetery. The two characters have a lot in common: both are rich, both of their wives have died, and their daughters show excessive independence. This is just the beginning of a complex friendship. Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson mockingly captures the letter and spirit of Shakespeare with irony and wit.