"A deliciously lyrical novel that is powerful, suspenseful, and taut, with danger on every page."
-- Libba Bray, author of A Great and Terrible Beauty
Description
"Powers of the air, be here now. So mote it be."
Conceived on May Morning, Nell is claimed by the piskies and faeries as a merrybegot, one of their own. She is a wild child: herb gatherer and healer, spell-weaver and midwife...and, some say, a witch.
Grace is everything Nell is not. She is the Puritan minister's daughter: beautiful and refined, innocent and sweet-natured...to those who think they know her. But she is hiding a secret -- a secret that will bring everlasting shame to her family should it ever come to light.
A merrybegot and a minister's daughter -- two girls who could not have less in common. Yet their fates collide when Grace and her younger sister, Patience, are suddenly spitting pins, struck with fits, and speaking in fevered tongues. The minister is convinced his daughters are the victims of witchcraft. And all signs point to Nell as the source of the trouble....
Set during the tumultuous era of the English Civil War, The Minister's Daughter is a spellbinding page-turner -- stunning historical fiction that captures the superstition, passion, madness, and magic of a vanished age.
Reviews
"With its thought-provoking perceptions about human nature, magic and persecution, this tale will surely cast a spell over readers."
-- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Hearn creates a richly magical ambiance, straddling the line between the supernatural and the concrete realm of human passions and weaknesses."
-- Horn Book, starred review
"Dramatic and frothy...provocative."
-- BCCB