The Beheading Game, the enchanting first novel by poet Rebecca Lehmann, has an irresistible premise: on the day after her death, Anne Boleyn awakens in an arrow chest, her severed head at her knees. As she remembers the days leading up to her execution and her betrayal by Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII, Anne becomes furious. She then escapes the Tower of London, sews her head back on, and goes on a revenge tour to kill the king. The novel is worth reading for that first chapter alone, but there is so much more to recommend in this feminist reimagining of Tudor history.
Lehmann's extensive research for the novel is evident in its every detail, from Anne's embroidered slippers and red stockings to changes in the Act of Succession. As she makes her way to Whitehall Palace with murderous intent, Anne discovers a very different England than the one she knew as queen. Disguised as a commoner and helped by a new friend, Alice, a part-time prostitute, Anne repeatedly hears herself described as "the great whore" and comes to an understanding of how difficult life is for every woman in the kingdom. Her own intelligence, once prized by the fickle king, proved her undoing when it challenged the men in positions of power.
Lehmann's writing is both dazzling and sumptuous, a feast for readers that nimbly crosses genres. Her Anne Boleyn is complex and entirely relatable, despite the crude stitches holding her head to her body. Fanciful but always thoughtful, this novel is a stunning achievement. --Debra Ginsberg, author and freelance editor