The Dance Tree
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
From Kiran Millwood Hargrave, the bestselling author of The Mercies, The Dance Tree is a heart-stopping story of family secrets, forbidden love and women pushed to the edge.
'Exceptionally brilliant. Immersive, sensual, compelling and totally convincing. Accessible, ambitious, The Dance Tree deserves to win prizes' Marian Keyes
In Strasbourg, in the boiling hot summer of 1518, a plague strikes the women of the city. First it is just one - a lone figure, dancing in the town square - but she is joined by more and more and the city authorities declare an emergency. Musicians will be brought in. The devil will be danced out of these women.
Just beyond the city's limits, pregnant Lisbet lives with her mother-in-law and husband, tending the bees that are their livelihood. Her best friend Ida visits regularly and Lisbet is so looking forward to sharing life and motherhood with her. And then, just as the first woman begins to dance in the city, Lisbet's sister-in-law Nethe returns from six years penance in the mountains for an unknown crime. No one - not even Ida - will tell Lisbet what Nethe did all those years ago, and Nethe herself will not speak a word about it.
It is the beginning of a few weeks that will change everything for Lisbet - her understanding of what it is to love and be loved, and her determination to survive at all costs for the baby she is carrying. Lisbet and Nethe and Ida soon find themselves pushing at the boundaries of their existence - but they're dancing to a dangerous tune . . .
PRAISE FOR THE DANCE TREE
'An intriguing, haunting novel pulsing with raw, beautiful emotion. Kiran Millwood-Hargrave effortlessly intertwines the stories of women tenderly and sympathetically, creating a novel in which female courage and resilience shines brightly against a brilliantly evoked backdrop of claustrophobic horror'
Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne
'The Dance Tree is, simply put, a stunning piece of writing. There is so much pain and grief and loss in it, yet in the end, it all comes back to the redemptive power of love. Sensual, gripping, moving'
Louise O'Neill, bestselling author of Idol
'Some historical novels don't just describe the past, they transport you there . . . I absolutely loved this book . . . an exceptionally beautiful portrait of women from the past, told in the most spellbinding prose'
Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hargrave's overwrought latest (after The Mercies) takes place in the sweltering European summer of 1518, when a slew of women danced in the central square of Strasbourg for months. The craze begins with Lisbet, a beekeeper who is determined to see her latest pregnancy through after a series of miscarriages. Her husband, Henne, leaves home for Heidelberg to keep their bees from being confiscated by the local monastery, just as Lisbet's sister-in-law, Nethe, returns after seven years at a secluded abbey in the mountains, penance for an unnamed sin. Only Lisbet's friend Ida, married to a cruel and vengeful man, and Nethe know about Lisbet's dance tree, deep in the forest, where ribbons flutter for each of the children she has lost. Secrets are revealed, and things spiral dangerously out of control for Lisbet after an increasing number of women take to dancing themselves into oblivion in the city, prompting two musicians to attempt to cast the devil out of them with their music. Sometimes Hargrave's prose soars, but more often its excessive floridity undercuts the story's drama. Readers will have a hard time finding their way into this one.
