Winter, a cemetery, Shylock. In this provocative and profound interpretation of “The Merchant of Venice,” Shylock is juxtaposed against his present-day counterpart in the character of art dealer and conflicted father Simon Strulovitch. With characteristic irony, Jacobson presents Shylock as a man of incisive wit and passion, concerned still with questions of identity, parenthood, anti-Semitism and revenge. While Strulovich struggles to reconcile himself to his daughter Beatrice's “betrayal” of her family and heritage – as she is carried away by the excitement of Manchester high society, and into the arms of a footballer notorious for giving a Nazi salute on the field – Shylock alternates grief for his beloved wife with rage against his own daughter's rejection of her Jewish upbringing. Culminating in a shocking twist on Shylock’s demand for the infamous pound of flesh, Jacobson’s insightful retelling examines contemporary, acutely relevant questions of Jewish identity while maintaining a poignant sympathy for its characters and a genuine spiritual kinship with its antecedent—a drama which Jacobson himself considers to be “the most troubling of Shakespeare’s plays for anyone, but, for an English novelist who happens to be Jewish, also the most challenging.”

霍華德·雅各布森 Howard Jacobson，英國猶太裔小說傢、專欄作傢，在劍橋大學塞爾文學院任教，自詡為 “猶太裔的簡·奧斯丁”。他的主要作品包括：《強大的華爾澤》《此刻誰抱歉？》《卡魯奇之夜》（入圍2006年布剋奬長名單）、《愛情迫害狂》等。2010年憑喜劇 小說《芬剋勒問題》摘得布剋奬。

霍華德·雅各布森最擅長描寫人們在自我身份認同問題上的掙紮，文風幽默睿智，卻力道十足，辛辣諷刺。選定改寫《威尼斯商人》後遭友人嘲笑，覺得他會自砸招牌。但他堅持，並錶示一定要獨闢蹊徑，讓劇中的猶太人夏洛剋發齣不同的聲音。