The witching tide: a novel
(Book)
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"East Anglia, 1645. Martha Hallybread, a midwife, healer, and servant, has lived peacefully for more than four decades in her beloved seaside village of Cleftwater. Having lost her voice as a child, Martha has not spoken a word in years. One autumn morning, a sinister newcomer appears in town. The witchfinder, Silas Makepeace, has been blazing a trail of destruction along the coast, and now has Cleftwater in his sights. His arrival strikes fear into the heart of the community. Within a day, local women are being captured and detained, and Martha finds herself a silent witness to the hunt. Powerless to protest, Martha is enlisted to search the accused women for "devil's marks." She is caught between suspicion and betrayal; between shielding herself or condemning the women of the village. In desperation, she revives a wax witching doll that belonged to her mother, in the hope that it will bring protection. But the doll's true powers are unknowable, Martha harbors a terrible secret, and the gallows are looming..."--
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Booklist Review
Mute and on the cusp of uselessness (late middle age) in seventeenth-century England, Martha has carved a niche as a midwife, healer, and servant to a beloved master with a petulant, pregnant wife. When a traveler purporting to be a witchfinder rolls his dark tide toward Martha's seaside village of Cleftwater, she is horrified to be tasked with serving the witchfinder as a "searcher" of women's bodies, seeking out "devil's marks," especially because she carries a poppet of her own. As townswomen are arrested, Martha treads a fine line between safety and complicity. With characters refreshingly of their time, rather than straw men parroting the mores of ours, this novel is an immersive tale of the East Anglian witch trials as seen through the eyes of an absorbing protagonist. It showcases the horrors inflicted by social hysteria, and offers a three-dimensional view of individual participants whose roles and motivations are differently shaped by religious faith, interpersonal connections, and intellectual acuity. This is an accomplished debut work by an author to watch.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A mute midwife becomes a target of the 17th-century East Anglian witch hunt in Meyer's immersive if murky debut. Martha Hallybread, 47, lives with Kit, whom she nursed as a child, and his family, and uses her knowledge of herbs to treat illnesses and deliver babies. The day after she and a servant named Prissy deliver a neighbor's baby with fatal birth defects, Prissy is accused of witchcraft and arrested. Kit, hoping to shield Martha from execution, convinces the court to employ her as one of the women scouring the bodies of the accused for witch marks. Martha tries to leverage her new role to protect the accused, but matters take a turn for the worse when Kit's pregnant wife, Agnes, is also accused of witchcraft because of her association with Martha. Things get a little hazy in the third act, as Martha uses the poppet she inherited from her mother to put a hex on the witchfinder who'd accused her and Agnes, though Meyer remains coy as to whether or not the magic is real. Still, the author offers a stirring depiction of the selfishness, revenge, and fear behind the accusations. This evocative narrative is sure to pique readers' curiosity about the witch trials. Agent: Kimberly Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (Sept.)
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Citations
Meyer, M. (2023). The witching tide: a novel. First Scribner hardcover edition. New York, Scribner.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Meyer, Margaret. 2023. The Witching Tide: A Novel. New York, Scribner.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Meyer, Margaret, The Witching Tide: A Novel. New York, Scribner, 2023.
MLA Citation (style guide)Meyer, Margaret. The Witching Tide: A Novel. First Scribner hardcover edition. New York, Scribner, 2023.
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Record Information
Last Sierra Extract Time | Nov 21, 2024 07:14:01 AM |
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Last File Modification Time | Nov 21, 2024 07:15:11 AM |
Last Grouped Work Modification Time | Nov 21, 2024 07:14:07 AM |
MARC Record
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020 | |a 9781668011362 |q (hardcover) | ||
020 | |a 1668011360 |q (hardcover) | ||
037 | |b Simon & Schuster, Order Dept 100 Front st, Riverside, NJ, USA, 08075 |n SAN 200-2442 | ||
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100 | 1 | |a Meyer, Margaret |q (Margaret J.), |e author. | |
245 | 1 | 4 | |a The witching tide : |b a novel / |c Margaret Meyer. |
250 | |a First Scribner hardcover edition. | ||
264 | 1 | |a New York : |b Scribner, |c ©2023. | |
300 | |a 327 pages ; |c 23 cm | ||
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520 | |a "East Anglia, 1645. Martha Hallybread, a midwife, healer, and servant, has lived peacefully for more than four decades in her beloved seaside village of Cleftwater. Having lost her voice as a child, Martha has not spoken a word in years. One autumn morning, a sinister newcomer appears in town. The witchfinder, Silas Makepeace, has been blazing a trail of destruction along the coast, and now has Cleftwater in his sights. His arrival strikes fear into the heart of the community. Within a day, local women are being captured and detained, and Martha finds herself a silent witness to the hunt. Powerless to protest, Martha is enlisted to search the accused women for "devil's marks." She is caught between suspicion and betrayal; between shielding herself or condemning the women of the village. In desperation, she revives a wax witching doll that belonged to her mother, in the hope that it will bring protection. But the doll's true powers are unknowable, Martha harbors a terrible secret, and the gallows are looming..."-- |c Publisher's description. | ||
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