Why read The Witches of Vardo?

Book cover of The Witches of Vardo

Book description

They will have justice. They will show their power. They will not burn.

'Three women's fight for survival in a time of madness' Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies

Norway, 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. After recently…

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Historical fiction

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Witches of Vardo as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Barbara Southard

Author

Although I knew that this novel was unlikely to have a happy ending because few women emerge intact after being accused of witchcraft, I couldn’t put this book down. I became attached to the characters, reading on well past midnight to find out whether they would escape a terrible fate.

Women who didn’t conform to the strict code of female behavior in seventeenth-century Norway were all possible targets of the witch hunters. I was filled with admiration for those imprisoned women who held out against demands that they incriminate others and even felt sympathy for those who succumbed to torture…

From Barbara's list on courageous women facing seemingly insuperable odds.