Books News

New book on witches and trials

By Jessica Schneider Jun 15, 2009, 10:03 GMT

"A fresh present-day story infused with an original take on popular history. Forget broomsticks and pointy hats; here are witches that could well be walking among us today. This debut novel flows with poetic charm and eloquence that achieves high literary merit while concocting a gripping supernatural puzzler. Katherine Howe\'s talent is spellbinding." --Matthew Pearl, author of The Poe Shadow and The Dante Club A spellbinding, ...more

“The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane” is the latest title by Katherine Howe, one that USA Today notes will leave readers “spellbound.”

The reviewer notes: “Best of all, Howe's no J.K. Rowling wannabe. The author of the Harry Potter series may have written the world's best-selling series about wizardry, but Physick Book is a fresh and mesmerizing modern-day mystery of witches and witchcraft set in the real world — and that's what makes it so good.”

The product description notes:

“A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history-the Salem witch trials.

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible.

The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest--to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.

Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the witch trials of the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation.”

Read the review here.