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The Beheading Game

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Disgraced. Beheaded. And out for revenge . . .

When Anne Boleyn wakes up after her execution she finds she is not yet ready for death. She has unfinished business with the king who had her murdered and is determined to secure the future of her daughter, Elizabeth. Discarded by Henry for failing to produce a male heir, reviled by the court for being too smart for her own good and beheaded on trumped-up charges, Anne has one last chance to turn her fate around. She escapes the tower, sews her head back on, and sets out on a quest for vengeance.

But Anne’s path to justice will not run smoothly as she encounters the dangers of London and the countryside, and rumours start to swirl about sightings of her ghost. Luckily for her, she will find help from a chance meeting with fenlander Alice, who offers her the possibility of a different future.

The Beheading Game takes you into the heart and mind of one of the most talked-about women of all time and finally gives her the chance to tell her side of the story.

‘Original, audacious. . . A must-read for lovers of history, magic and revenge’ Erin Kelly

‘Magic, romance, revenge, and an utterly irresistible heroine – this book is an instant classic’ Lev Grossman, author of The Bright Sword

'Fabulous! A marvelously inventive and mythic reworking of the story of Anne Boleyn. I loved it' Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love

© Rebecca Lehmann 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

Anne Boleyn is dead; long live Anne Boleyn. In Lehmann’s playful revisionist history, Henry VIII’s second wife wakes up in a box after her execution, sews her head back on with a needle and thread and gets down to the business of assuring her daughter Elizabeth’s ascendance to the throne (or, if you want to put a finer point on it, revenge)
New York Times
An original, audacious twist on a tale we all think we know. A must-read for lovers of history, magic and revenge
Erin Kelly, the Sunday Times bestselling author of THE POISON TREE
Magic, romance, revenge, and an utterly irresistible heroine - this book is an instant classic
Lev Grossman, author of BRIGHT SWORD
Lyrical and audacious, The Beheading Game, pulls no punches in re-imagining this well-known story. In turns vulnerable, furious, triumphant and moving, I never wanted to let go of the deeply human Anne that Lehmann conjures
Kat Dunn, author of HUNGERSTONE
Fabulous! A marvelously inventive and mythic reworking of the story of Anne Boleyn. I loved it.
Kelly Link, author of THE BOOK OF LOVE
'In The Beheading Game, Rebecca Lehmann’s fierce and audacious imagination soars, bringing us Anne Boleyn as we have never dared to see or imagine her before. Sister, mother, wife, avenger: In Lehmann’s brilliant hands, ferocious, feminist Anne turns from hunted to hunter, from disdained to loved, a transformation that is pure poetry. Anne’s search for justice could awaken the dead and will awaken every reader from the very first page. If you have ever wanted better for Anne Boleyn, this unlikely love story is for you.
V. V. Ganeshananthan, author of the Women's Prize-winning BROTHERLESS NIGHT
Brilliantly imagined, stylishly written, satisfyingly plotted, full of delicious surprises: all in all, hella fun.
Kirkus

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