Viola survives a shipwreck, but she thinks her twin brother Sebastian has died. Alone in a strange country where it isn't safe to be a single girl, Viola disguises herself as a boy called Cesario and finds work as a servant. But dressing in boy's clothes doesn't stop Viola falling in love with a man - who is in love with someone else. Will she ever manage to win his love for herself? And who is this other young man that appears, looking so like Cesario? What confusion will result from his arrival? Perhaps Viola's brother didn't drown after all ...

Real Reads are accessible texts designed to support the literacy development of primary and lower secondary age children while introducing them to the riches of our international literary heritage. Each book is a retelling of a work of great literature from one of the world's greatest cultures, fitted into a 64-page book, making classic stories, dramas and histories available to intelligent young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions.