The Heretic's Daughter: A Novel - Softcover

Kent, Kathleen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 031602449X ISBN 13: 9780316024495

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 2009

Synopsis

A woman condemned by the truth. Her daughter saved by a lie.
Salem, 1752. Sarah Carrier Chapman, weak with infirmity, writes a letter to her granddaughter that reveals the secret she has closely guarded for six decades: how she survived the Salem Witch Trials when her mother did not.

Sarah's story begins more than a year before the trials, when she and her family arrive in a New England community already gripped by superstition and fear. As they witness neighbor pitted against neighbor, friend against friend, the hysteria escalates--until more than two hundred men, women, and children have been swept into prison. Among them is Sarah's mother, Martha Carrier. In an attempt to protect her children, Martha asks Sarah to commit an act of heresy--a lie that will most surely condemn Martha even as it will save her daughter.

This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.

About this title

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 031602449X
• ISBN 13: 9780316024495
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 332