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Kathleen Kent plumbs her own ancestry to give us this excellent book. Martha Carrier and her daughter Sarah are caught in the web of hysteria and madness that becomes the disgraceful Salem witch trials. Heart-wrenching and unsettling, The Heretic's Daughter is a powerful look at a disturbing chapter in American history. I loved it. Recommended by Dianah, Powell's Books at PDX
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis:
Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.
Kathleen Kent is a tenth generation descendent of Martha Carrier. She paints a haunting portrait, not just of Puritan New England, but also of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.
Synopsis:
Based on her own family's history, Kent tells the story of Martha Carrier, who was one of the first women to be hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. In this novel, Kent paints a haunting portrait of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.
ceciliah, January 20, 2012 (view all comments by ceciliah)
"The Heretic's Daughter" by Kathleen Kent has been the most moving yet accurately portrayed fictional account of the Salem Witch Trials I've ever read. I was sadly crying and working my way through quite a few tissues before reaching the last sentence. Not only does this story tell of the audacious stupidity of one group of people believing themselves so righteous and pious they could point a finger and accuse a friend or neighbor of practicing witchcraft (for a normal occurrence in those days as a cow becoming sick and dying) but Ms. Kent’s tale also shows the depth of a mother's love for her children in giving up everything for their survival.
Like Kathleen, I also had an ancestor tried for witchcraft, not in Salem but Hartford, CT in 1657-58 and have read the transcripts of her trial. "The Heretic's Daughter" made me see, feel and smell the horror my ancestor must have felt...a scary, sickening, hopeless feeling. Fortunately for me, she was acquitted. Ms. Kent has the ability to pluck her reader out their comfortable 21st century armchair and deliver them to a crowded stuffy 1692 jail cell with little food or water and filthy straw for living quarters.
I anxiously awaited Kathleen Kent’s next book, "The Wolves of Andover", about Martha Allen Carrier’s husband, Thomas. In “The Heretic’s Daughter”, Thomas has a veiled past that the author hints at but is never fully revealed. The prequel, “The Wolves of Andover” is on my 'to-read' list and I know I won’t be disappointed. I have recommended over and over “The Heretic’s Daughter” to anyone wanting a great historical read but be prepared for a late night (you won’t want to stop reading this book once you start it) and lay in an ample supply of tissue.
Gracie, January 29, 2011 (view all comments by Gracie)
I truly had a hard time putting this book down once I started it. And I don't usually go for historical fiction, as it tends to be too much fiction and too little history. But Kathleen Kent stays well within the bounds of history while bringing to life vivid characters—her own ancestors, in fact—as they struggled with horrific circumstances. Her voice is historical in tone without affectation, and the narrative flows smoothly through the 1690s approaching those ignominious days with a sense of i...moreI truly had a hard time putting this book down once I started it. And I don't usually go for historical fiction, as it tends to be too much fiction and too little history. But Kathleen Kent stays well within the bounds of history while bringing to life vivid characters—her own ancestors, in fact—as they struggled with horrific circumstances. Her voice is historical in tone without affectation, and the narrative flows smoothly through the 1690s approaching those ignominious days with a sense of inevitability that lends an appropriate tinge of melancholy to the story.
The narrator, Sarah Carrier, brings the reader along on an account of the Salem witch trials that shows just how easily such a thing can happen and just how little—and how much—the truth means. The mass hysteria surrounding the trials shapes Sarah's young life and the life of her family in heartrending and profound ways starting with the arrest of Sarah's mother; the Carriers are met with anger, suspicion, fear, accusation, separation, imprisonment, sickness, and death before the story is done.
How they face those trials is what gives the story its heart and meaning, much the way John Proctor's actions make The Crucible the story that it is. And Sarah tells her story with simplicity and honesty, opening the painful wounds of her childhood experiences. All the anger, misery, and guilt she carries; all the resignation and love she finds; and all the strength she sees in herself and her family are there.
People will ask those who have lived beyond terrible trials, "How did you come to get beyond your loss?" as though the survivor who suffered the loss should simply stop up their nose until breath is starved from the lungs. It is true that some people will lose their desire for life and refuse food and drink after the death of a beloved, or if there is too much pain and injury to the body. But a child, so recently come into the world from the void of creation, can be more resilient than the strongest man, more strong willed than the hardiest woman.
y.paralaventa, January 28, 2011 (view all comments by y.paralaventa)
Utterly compelling. The details of daily life, and description of Colonial America are unforgettable. Makes you wonder if we went back to Colonial prisons if crime and prison overcrowding might be reduced. Ugh!
The Heretic's Daughter Signed Edition
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Kathleen Kent
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$7.95
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Product details
332 pages
Back Bay Books -
English9780316024495
Reviews:
"Staff Pick"
by Dianah,
Kathleen Kent plumbs her own ancestry to give us this excellent book. Martha Carrier and her daughter Sarah are caught in the web of hysteria and madness that becomes the disgraceful Salem witch trials. Heart-wrenching and unsettling, The Heretic's Daughter is a powerful look at a disturbing chapter in American history. I loved it.
by Dianah
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.
Kathleen Kent is a tenth generation descendent of Martha Carrier. She paints a haunting portrait, not just of Puritan New England, but also of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
Based on her own family's history, Kent tells the story of Martha Carrier, who was one of the first women to be hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. In this novel, Kent paints a haunting portrait of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.
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