The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane -

Katherine Howe

Voice

2009

384 páginas

12h 48m

ISBN-1: 0

"A fresh present-day story infused with an original take on popular history. Forget broomsticks and pointy hats; here are witches that could well be walking among us today. This debut novel flows with poetic charm and eloquence that achieves high literary merit while concocting a gripping supernatural puzzler. Katherine Howe's talent is spellbinding."
--Matthew Pearl, author of The Poe Shadow and The Dante Club
A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history-the Salem witch trials.

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest--to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.

Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the witch trials of the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation.

Resenhas (1)

3 (Bom)

O livro apresenta a história ficcional de um antigo livro com fórmulas herméticas cuja escrita foi iniciada por Deliverance Dane, uma mulher misteriosa que foi acusada de bruxaria em 1682, juntamente com outras mulheres de Salem. Fato interessante nesta história é que as mulheres mencionadas existiram e a autora emprega elementos biográficos para enriquecer sua narrativa; sendo ela própria, Katherine Howe, descendente de uma destas mulheres. A parte ficcional envolve a descoberta de forças transcendentes da natureza, das quais se valem certas pessoas para provocarem fenômenos inexplicáveis. Em suma, é um livro envolvente apesar da narrativa ser um pouco enfadonha devido ao excesso de detalhes na descrição de pessoas e lugares.