The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill
The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill
In Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails, property vanishes, and people suffer convulsions as if possessed by demons. A woman is seen wading through a swamp like a lost soul. Disturbing dreams and visions proliferate. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumors spread of witches and heretics, and the community becomes tangled in a web of distrust, resentment, and denunciation. The finger of suspicion soon falls on a young couple with two small children: the prickly brickmaker Hugh Parsons and his troubled wife, Mary.
Drawing on rich, previously unexplored source material, Malcolm Gaskill vividly evokes a strange past, one where lives were steeped in the divine and the diabolic, in omens, curses, and enchantments. The Ruin of All Witches captures an entire society caught in agonized transition between superstition and enlightenment, tradition and innovation.
ALFRED A. KNOPF, HARDCOVER, 1ST EDITION, 2021
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK.