Hour of the Witch: A Novel (Unabridged)
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4.0 • 111 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
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, bestselling 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 twenty-four-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.
Look for Chris Bohjalian's new novel, The Lioness!
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Come for Chris Bohjalian’s rich and engrossing historical fiction, stay for the edge-of-your-seat suspense. It’s 1662 in Boston, and Mary Deerfield wants to divorce her abusive husband. But that’s no easy task. Not only does she bump up against patriarchal Puritan values, she also has to defend herself against actual charges of witchcraft—which were no joke in 17th-century New England! From the cutlery to the clothing, Bohjalian uses meticulous period details to create a real and transporting vibe. Even more impressively, he really gets us into the heads of his characters, and through poetic dialogue, he gives us a clear sense of the way this 1600s community thought and spoke. A full cast of narrators brings home that immersive quality in this impressive audio version. With Mary’s life on the line, Hour of the Witch is both a nail-biting thriller and a reminder that the struggles of the #MeToo era have roots that reach back centuries.
Customer Reviews
Audiobook
The story was incredibly well-written with well-researched historical details. However, I had a difficult time staying focused on the story because of the way the reader of the audiobook pushed her voice at the end of many words and/or sentences. She over-performed her reading, often not sounding natural.
Hour of the witch
Has some historical elements read in old English dialects, was entertaining enough to listen to on my daily walks
Fascinating read
Fascinating read. Loved the fact versus fiction. Could not quit listening