The Heretic's Daughter - Hardcover

Kathleen Kent

3.78

35,722 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0230704433 ISBN 13: 9780230704435

Publisher: MacMillan, 2009

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Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. Young Sarah Carrier is bright and wilful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which her family lives. Her father is English in origin, quietly stoical but with a secret history. When her mother Martha, a herbalist, is accused of witchcraft, she makes Sarah promise not to stand up for her in court. As Sarah and her brothers are hauled into the prison themselves, the vicious cruelty of the trials becomes apparent. The Carrier family, starved and deprived of any decency, have to battle their way through the hysteria with the sheer willpower their mother has taught them.

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About the Author:

Kathleen Kent lives in Dallas with her husband and son. THE HERETIC'S DAUGHTER is her first novel.

From AudioFile:

Mare Winningham starts by expressing young Sarah Carrier's dislike for her harsh mother and stern father. Then a pox comes to their late-seventeenth-century farm near Salem, Massachusetts, and Sarah is removed to the lively home of her aunt. Winningham lets us hear the tenderness in Sarah's voice as she warms to cheerier surroundings. Winningham's portrayal of Sarah's hostility on homecoming is sharpened with preadolescent indignation and judgment. Gradually, Winningham's tones change as Sarah becomes bitter and protective when her mother is accused of witchcraft. Powerful descriptions of 9-year-old Sarah's time in prison are depicted well by the fear, anger, and repulsion Winningham projects into her reading. Author Kent, a tenth-generation descendent of Martha Carrier, who was hanged as a witch in 1692, has an accurate vision for time and place, equaled by Winningham's narration. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

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