The Witches

September 7, 2015
Pulitzer-winner Schiff (Cleopatra: A Life) applies her descriptive prowess and flair for the dramatic to the Salem witch trials. The book is packed with details and delivered with a punch, but it suffers from a dearth of nuance. Schiff’s passionate use of the active tense places the reader right in the midst of the action, about 15 miles north of Boston during the spring of 1692. However, this laudable effort also causes some confusion over place and time, and it’s hard to distinguish the facts from Schiff’s imaginative attempts at turning the trial reports into narrative action. There are disorienting shifts between passages in which the reader is immersed in the spooky, supposedly magical environment of Salem, and more prosaic sections describing what actually happened in the trials and town. Schiff provides background context for the events and focuses on the action, but her efforts to apply an overarching fairy tale theme miss their mark, and she avoids deep cultural, historical, and societal analyses of the trials. This retelling succeeds as a work of gripping popular nonfiction, but for those already familiar with the subject, it will serve only as light reading. Agent: Eric Simonoff, William Morris Endeavor.

September 1, 2015
The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer provides an account of a foundational American tragedy of mass hysteria and injustice. At its best, the latest work from Schiff (Cleopatra: A Life, 2010, etc.) ably weaves together all the assorted facts and many personalities from the 1692 Salem witch trials and provides genuine insight into a 17th-century culture that was barely a few steps away from the Dark Ages. Religious belief and superstition passed for reality, science had no foothold whatsoever, and both common folk and their educated ministers could believe that local women rode broomsticks, turned into cats, and had the power to be in two places at once. Furthermore, it was a world in which an accusation was as good as a conviction, where seemingly possessed girls flailed and contorted themselves in court, while judges bore down upon helpless defendants with loaded questions. The accused, under the spell of their own culture, could likewise turn on themselves-and not just to save their skin. "Confession came naturally to a people who believed it the route to salvation, who submitted spiritual biographies when they entered into church membership, who did not entirely differentiate sin from crime," writes the author. "By the craggy logic of the day, if you had been named, you must have been named for a reason. Little soul-searching was required to locate a kernel of guilt." While Schiff has marshaled the facts in neat sequential order, the book lacks either a sense of relevance or compelling narrative drive. The author writes in a sharp-eyed yet conversational tone, but she doesn't have anything new to say or at least nothing that would come as a revelation to even general readers, until the final pages. This is the type of book that yearns from the beginning for a fresh approach or a new angle. As history, The Witches is intelligent and reliable; as a story, it's a trudge over very well-trod ground.

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Starred review from September 1, 2015
In 1692, the Massachusetts Bay Colony executed 14 women, 5 men, and 2 dogs for witchcraft. The ensuing terror cut a wide swath through the colony, affecting residents of all ages and educational backgrounds. Pulitzer Prizewinning historian Schiff (Vera, 1999; Cleopatra, 2010) chronicles the surrounding events, painting a vivid portrait of a homogenous, close-knit network of communities rapidly devolving into irrational paranoia. Delving deep into the inner recesses of the nascent American psyche, she sets the stage for one of the most bizarrely compelling and mysterious episodes in American history. Proving, yet again, that truth is stranger than fiction, she mines existing records, extrapolates all the major characters, and pieces together the unfolding story in suitably dramatic fashion as neighbors, friends, and family members turn on one another. Discarding false legends and lore while expertly capturing and communicating the social climate of this particular time and place, she provides a compulsively readable slice of Americana that will appeal to both book clubs and a wide variety of individual readers. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The best-selling Schiff never disappoints, and her eagerly anticipated account of the Salem witchcraft tragedy lives up to expectations, providing a fascinating account of one of the most infamous years in American history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2015

In 1692, nearly two dozen people accused of being witches were hanged in and around Salem, MA. What started as a few adolescent girls writhing and convulsing soon metastasized into dozens of "victims," hundreds accused, and communities torn apart. While witchcraft trials weren't unfamiliar to New England, clemency and uncertainty were the norm until this outbreak. Schiff (Cleopatra) traces the course of the witch hunts, detailing each player, accusation, confabulation, court appearance, and execution. The author also provides exciting digressions into the nature of continental and New World witchcraft, local political and social disputes, religious instruction, and Puritan life; though these find odd placings among the overlong courtroom reporting. Schiff's goal appears to be creating a complete accounting--it's hard to tell, though, because the work is weak in structure and organization and lacks a solid thesis. The last 50 pages are the strongest as they pose possible explanations for why the craze occurred and the various motivations of the afflicted, the inquisitors, and confessors. VERDICT This fully documented narrative, if a bit exhausting and disorganized, will find a welcome audience among readers of witchcraft or colonial histories as well as Schiff's legion of fans. [See Prepub Alert, 4/27/15.]--Evan M. Anderson, Kirkendall P.L., Ankeny, IA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2015

Pulitzer Prize-winning Schiff's recent Cleopatra made 20 Best Books lists in 2010 and has sold 800,000 copies across formats, so what's next? Investigating one raw and awful year in the Massachusetts Bay Colony when a minister's daughter's fits led to barbed accusations of witchcraft. When it was over, 19 men and women had been hanged, which profoundly shaped the emerging republic. With a 300,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.