Newes from the Dead

May 12, 2008
British author Hooper (The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose
) bases this macabre novel on the chilling true story of Anne Green, a maidservant who in 1650 was hanged, thrown into a coffin... and “miraculously” revived just as the doctors at the medical school in Oxford were about to dissect her. From her purgatorial state inside the coffin, Anne recounts the details of her wretched life—her seduction by the lying grandson and heir of Sir Thomas Reade, at whose estate Anne works; her pregnancy and miscarriage; her trial for infanticide, where a guilty verdict is virtually assured by Sir Thomas's fury at her for naming his grandson as the father. Alternating chapters describe events as experienced by witnesses, particularly a shy, stuttering medical student for whom the sight of Anne's corpse-like body reawakens a traumatic memory of his own (gratuitously occasioning a melodramatic subplot). As Oxford doctors observe tiny signs of life but cannot hasten Anne's awakening, Sir Thomas demands that justice be served; meanwhile others interpret Anne's state as a message from God. All the dissection-room debating slows the pace, but it's hard to take the edge off this plot. Ages 14–up.

May 1, 2008
Gr 8 Up-A grabber of a premise: It's England, 1650, and as the dissection of an ill-fated 22-year-old servant woman newly unstrung from the gallows begins, the participants detect the cadaver's eyes flickering. Hooper alternates perspective from Anne (the not-actually-dead corpse), who flashes back to explain how she ended up there, to that of a young intellectual attendee of the dissection, a sympathetic stutterer named Robert. Anne's story, rife with gruesome scenes of Puritan-era life (e.g., a rat-infested prison, a bloody miscarriage in a dirty privy) trumps Robert's drier account of the discourse among various distinguished intellectuals of the day, unless readers are well versed in the period's historical details (e.g., when Christopher Wren is teased for his poor poetry). The resulting back-and-forth of the two narrators makes for a poorly paced read, but the pervasive sense of injustice and indignity is vibrant enough to buoy readers through to the unexpectedly positive ending. Loosely based on a true storyhence the title, taken from broadsides published at the timewith a decidedly unromantic view of the era, this is a must-read for teens learning about Cromwell and the Puritan revolution, or for young feminists who appreciate narratives about the treatment of women in history."Rhona Campbell, Washington, DC Public Library"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 23, 2009
It is 1650, and Anne is a maid servant in the pious household of Sir Thomas Reade. There she falls victim to his ne're-do-well grandson and becomes pregnant. As in Dowd's A Swift Pure Cry, the baby arrives early and stillborn. However, when the body is inevitably discovered, Anne is sentenced to hang for matricide, this being Cromwell's England. Here's the twist: the story unfolds in alternating viewpoints as Anne's body lies immobile on a dissection table. Young Robert Matthews, a medical student, thinks he might have seen her eyes flutter. Why It Is for Us: Childbirth can be a horrifying business, and this story, based on true events, is a chilling look at the plight of the powerless and impoverished in a classed society. Anne is a victim of her employer, of justice, and of the hangman's noose; it is only in death that she finds rescue. The book concludes with a reproduction of a 1651 medical document chronicling Anne's case.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2008
Newes from the Dead was the name ofa pamphlet that circulated in England in 1650 after a teenage housemaid, hanged for the crime of infanticide, awoke on the dissecting table. Hooper uses this case as the basis for a historical mystery that is creepyin the best Edgar Allen Poe tradition, as well asthought-provoking about sexual harassment and abuse. Thestory opens in a coffin, as the reader listens in on poor Annes frantic coming-to-terms with where she is and how she got there: her days as a servant, her seduction by a young lord, the accusation of murder. Annes thoughts, from coffin to dissecting table, are juxtaposed with a third-person narrative, centering ona nervous young surgeon who is on hand to witness and assist in the young womans dissection. Hooperexplains that surgeonswere allowed to conduct autopsies on criminals, and it's just such intriguing tidbits of Cromwellian historythat add heft tothis suspenseful novel.Give this to readers who prefer theirhistorical mysteries straight upwithout an overlay of fantasy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)