Welcome to the Velshi Band Book Club.

I'm Ali Velshi.

Today we are pairing two works of literature that were written over 400 years apart.

The first is arguably the most famous and most recognizable work in the long

history of English literature. The second is hyper-contemporary and heartbreakingly relevant today.

Separated by time and culture and joined by the universality of love, heartbreak, and duty,

today's featured works are Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

and All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinian.

We're going to begin today with Shakespeare.

Romeo and Juliet is foundational to the art of storytelling

and the legacy of love stories.

Then we will look at all the rivers,

a frank and contemporary examination of love and relationships in the context of familial ties,

cultural demands, and ingrained beliefs. So let's get started. From the first few lines of

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the reader

already knows what will become of our young protagonists. Quote, two households, both alike

in dignity in Fair Verona, where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of

these two foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives, whose misadventured piteous

overthrows, due with their death, bury their parents' strife, end quote.

One of Shakespeare's most popular, most performed, and most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet explores familial ties, the inevitability of fate, and the power of love.

It is also highly controversial, either beloved or derided.

...