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Hour of the Witch
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Grace Experience, Saskia Maarleveld, Danny Campbell, Cassandra Campbell, Arthur Morey, Mark Deakins, Julia Whelan, Kaleo Griffith, Kirby Heyborne, Rebecca Lowman, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
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Publisher's Summary
New York Times Best Seller
From the acclaimed author of The Flight Attendant: “Historical fiction at its best…. The book is a thriller in structure, and a real page-turner, the ending both unexpected and satisfying” (Diana Gabaldon, best-selling author of the Outlander series, The Washington Post).
A young Puritan woman - faithful, resourceful, but afraid of the demons that dog her soul - plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive novel of historical suspense.
Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is 24 years old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary's hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life.
But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary - a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony - soon becomes herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary's garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows.
A twisting, tightly plotted novel of historical suspense from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying story of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.
What the critics say
One of the Washington Post’s 50 Notable Works of Fiction for 2021
A Real Simple Best New Book
A Read It Forward Most Anticipated Book
A Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book
A CrimeReads Most Anticipated Book
A GoodReads Most Anticipated Book
An AARP Most Anticipated Book
“Hour of the Witch is historical fiction at its best.... Insightful and empathetic.... Thick with details as chowder is with clams.... Handled with great skill and delicacy. The book is a thriller in structure, and a real page-turner, the ending both unexpected and satisfying.” (Diana Gabaldon, The Washington Post)
"Harrowing.... In the hands of a master storyteller like Bohjalian, [Hour of the Witch is] an engrossing tale of a woman who insists upon the right to navigate her life, and the consequences when she does.” (Danielle Trussoni, New York Times Book Review)
"Bohjalian does an admirable job of bringing his numerous players to life in all their complexity.... Hour of the Witch - part courtroom thriller, part psychological suspense novel - holds a reader’s rapt attention all the way to its startling conclusion.” (Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal)
What listeners say about Hour of the Witch
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Danielle Perron
- 2021-06-03
I really liked it.
Well written and well read. The story is set in the early 1660's in Boston. Based on what I know of that era, the book seemed to depict well the struggles that abused women were faced with, the influence of the church on the colonisation process and the legal system in tranformation.
I recommend it to all interested in historical novels and feminism.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Dianne Fyn
- 2023-06-07
Definitely recommend
This was a good read. The subject matter was new for me and the writing kept me intrigued. I had to take a break from it for a day as I was not sure it I could handle the outcome for this woman.
The narrators were great and the start to each chapter was so clever.
I am not a spoiler so I will say no more.
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