Best Seller
Ordinary Women
Hardcover
$34.00
Available on Jun 22, 2027 | 352 Pages
The destines of five women collide in the New World on the cusp of the Salem Witch Trials in an unforgettable, richly emotional page-turner from the New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept
The woman’s name was now simply, Witch. Neither her past nor her future belonged to her anymore. They locked her away and told her to beg the Lord for forgiveness, but that even if she were granted His mercy, she still must be punished. They told her the only way she could escape the dungeon was when she was taken to the tree. And yet. . . .
For newlyweds Elizabeth and John Bennett, the American colonies promise an opportunity to begin again, to open a printing press in Boston that could shape the future of the new world. For others—like Faith Abbott, an accomplished midwife; the Turner twins, Purity and Sara; and Grace Hutchinson, daughter of Salem’s preeminent woodworker—the colonies have been home for many years. But everything does not come easy in this new land: a deadly plague has begun to spread in the Boston harbor and there are rumors of Salem women being pinched by invisible hands, of unwanted visitors in the night and dark voices carried to them by the wind. The Devil, it seems, has come to the New World.
With a startling combination of heart and wit, Lara Prescott has crafted an immersive, emotionally acute historical novel about what it means to be a woman in a world dominated by fear. A bold, heartfelt epic, Ordinary Women takes the storied history of the Salem Witch Trials and turns it into an allegory for our times, a whip-smart inditement of a culture that turns neighbor to enemy, friend to stranger, woman to witch.
The woman’s name was now simply, Witch. Neither her past nor her future belonged to her anymore. They locked her away and told her to beg the Lord for forgiveness, but that even if she were granted His mercy, she still must be punished. They told her the only way she could escape the dungeon was when she was taken to the tree. And yet. . . .
For newlyweds Elizabeth and John Bennett, the American colonies promise an opportunity to begin again, to open a printing press in Boston that could shape the future of the new world. For others—like Faith Abbott, an accomplished midwife; the Turner twins, Purity and Sara; and Grace Hutchinson, daughter of Salem’s preeminent woodworker—the colonies have been home for many years. But everything does not come easy in this new land: a deadly plague has begun to spread in the Boston harbor and there are rumors of Salem women being pinched by invisible hands, of unwanted visitors in the night and dark voices carried to them by the wind. The Devil, it seems, has come to the New World.
With a startling combination of heart and wit, Lara Prescott has crafted an immersive, emotionally acute historical novel about what it means to be a woman in a world dominated by fear. A bold, heartfelt epic, Ordinary Women takes the storied history of the Salem Witch Trials and turns it into an allegory for our times, a whip-smart inditement of a culture that turns neighbor to enemy, friend to stranger, woman to witch.
Author
Lara Prescott
LARA PRESCOTT received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Austin. She was previously an animal protection advocate and a political campaign operative. Her stories have appeared in The Southern Review, The Hudson Review, Crazyhorse, Day One,and Tin House Flash Fridays. She won the 2016 Crazyhorse Fiction Prize for the first chapter of The Secrets We Kept. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Learn More about Lara Prescott
