• Age: 15 to 18
• Grade: 10 to 12

If you could travel to any place and time in history, what would you do? For Isabel, Suresh, and Nathan, three teenagers in Ms Sullivan's high school English class, the answer is: 1613 when Shakespeare's Globe Theatre burned down. Nathan intends to ensure that all of Shakespeare's plays burn down with it, so students will never have to study Shakespeare again. When they land in 1592, losing their time travel device during the journey, they are stranded in Elizabethan London with no return in sight. Now they must grow and adapt to survive, or die. In the process, they reckon with historical figures such as Francis Drake, John Dee, Walter Raleigh, and a young up-and-coming Shakespeare. Filled with intrigue and the volatile history of its time, Killing Shakespeare is a fantasy that examines life, love, literacy, and their importance to us.

Koom Kankesan is a writer with a background in English Literature and Film Studies. He has written short stories and small anecdotal pieces for various journals, and has published film and book reviews with newspapers such as the Montreal Gazette. He is an unabashed fan of comic books and movies. The Panic Button is his first novella.

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"Killing Shakespeare is a rollicking adventure and a wonderful immersion into life in Shakespeare's time. Kankesan's research is thorough, and there is a delightful frisson in exploring the history--real and alternate--behind the literature." --Quill & Quire

"Killing Shakespeare has something for everyone. On the surface, it will appeal to those who like historical fiction, those who enjoy literature and Shakespeare, readers whose favourite genre is science-fiction/time travel and those who are attracted by the drama of human relationships. On a deeper level, the book presents a variety of questions which have no simple answers but are certainly well worth discussing." --CM: Canadian Review of Materials

"Koom Kankesan has written a spirited novel full of high adventure and esoteric details." --The Miramichi Reader

"The premise and plot of Koom Kankesan's Killing Shakespeare are even more audaciously original than the title itself. Finishing the book is like waking from a magical dream. I didn't know what to expect from a Young Adult novel. I'd heard--but didn't really believe--that YA novels are as likely to captivate adults as they are young adults. I'm a believer now. Part sci-fi, part historical fiction, part fantasy, part magic realism, Killing Shakespeare is for anyone who likes wonderful books. The three major characters each tell part of the story in unique voices--a feat in itself.

Shakespeare's England--though I've never been there--comes to vibrant and authentic life, the historical detail never seeming to be simply thrown on but working to excite all the senses. Battle scenes, a romantic triangle, the Bard himself as you're unlikely to have thought of him before, meditations and reflections on time and the origin and nature of consciousness, and even some fanciful comedy--they're all there ... I could say more but the book, literally, speaks for itself. Listen to it--or butt in as it welcomes you to do." --Wayne Johnston, author of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, The Mystery of Right and Wrong, and Jennie's Boy