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Illuminations:
A Novel
of Hildegard von Bingen
 About
the Book
Excerpt
Pre-order the Book
Amazon
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), Benedictine abbess and polymath,
composed an entire corpus of sacred music and wrote nine books on subjects
as diverse as theology, natural science, medicine, and human sexuality—a
prodigious intellectual outpouring that put many of her male contemporaries
to shame. Her prophecies earned her the title Sibyl of the Rhine. An outspoken
critic of political and ecclesiastical corruption, she courted controversy
and nearly died an excommunicant. Her courage and originality of thought
continue to inspire people today.
Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen reveals the unforgettable
story of how Hildegard, offered as a tithe to the Church at the age of
eight, triumphed against impossible odds to become the greatest woman of
her age. Combining fiction, history, and Hildegardian philosophy, Illuminations presents an arresting portrait of a woman of faith and power—a visionary
in every sense of the word.
Illuminations will be released in October 2012 to celebrate Hildegard's
long awaited canonization and elevation to Doctor of the Church.
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Early
Praise for
Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen
I loved Mary Sharratt’s Daughters of the Witching Hill, but she
has outdone herself with Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen.
She brings one of the most famous and enigmatic women of the Middle Ages to vibrant
life in this tour de force, which will captivate the reader from the very first
page.
—Sharon Kay Penman, New York Times bestselling author of Time and Chance
There is ecstasy in the writing of this redemptive novel of a 12th century woman
who found a world of cruelty and filled it with beauty, a powerless woman who
discovered her own power and led other women to find their own. Illuminations is
a radiantly beautiful book. Readers will long remember Hildegard and the gifts
she left us.
—Stephanie Cowell, author of Marrying Mozart, Claude & Camille:
a Novel of Monet and The Physician of London (American Book Award)
I love Mary Sharratt. The grace of her writing and the grace of her subject combine
seamlessly in this wonderful novel about the amazing, too-little-known saint,
Hildegard of Bingen, a mystic and visionary. Sharratt captures both the pain
and the beauty such gifts bring, as well as bringing to life a time of vast sins
and vast redemptions.
—Karleen Koen, author of Before Versailles and the best-selling Through
a Glass Darkly
With elegance and sensitivity, Mary Sharratt rescues Hildegard Von Bingen from
the obscurity of legend, bringing to life the flesh-and-blood woman in all her
conflict, faith, and unwavering tenacity. Illuminations is an astonishing revelation
of a visionary leader willing to sacrifice everything to defend her beliefs in
a dangerous time of oppression.
—C.W. Gortner, author of The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
It is easy to paint a picture of a saint from the outside but much more difficult
to show them from the inside. Mary Sharratt has undertaken this with sensitivity
and grace.
—Margaret George, author of Elizabeth I and Mary Called Magdalene |
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Daughters of the Witching Hill
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
About the Book
Excerpt
Video
See
the Latest News
Cast
of Characters
Discussion
Guide
Further
Reading
Demdike's
Charmes
Buy the Book:
Amazon
Amazon U.K.
Barnes & Noble
Borders
IndieBound
Powell's
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Set
in Lancashire, England, during the infamous
witch trials of 1612,
Daughters of the Witching Hill reveals the true story of
Bess Southerns, aka Old Demdike, cunning woman,
healer and the most notorious of the Pendle
Witches, and of Alizon Device, her granddaughter,
struggling to come to terms with her family’s
troubling legacy. Though the name of the Pendle
Witches lives on, few know the hard-hitting
details of the witch-hunt which tore apart
a community. Set in an era of religious intolerance,
political strife, suspicion and social inequality,
this haunting story of strong women and family
love and betrayal is more relevant than ever.
An American expat who has lived in Pendle for
seven years, Mary’s inspiration
for the novel arose directly out of the wild,
brooding landscape: the story of the Pendle
Witches unfolded almost literally in her backyard.
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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:
Starred Review, December 14, 2009
 Daughters
of the Witching Hill Mary Sharratt. Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt, $24 (352p) ISBN 978-0-547-06967-8
The
1612 Lancashire, England, witch trials
that resulted in nine executions inspires
Sharratt’s
gorgeously imagined novel that wonders
if some of the accusations of witchcraft
might be true. Sharratt (The
Vanishing Point) focuses on the Southerns
family of Pendle Forest. Widowed mother
Bess Southerns tries to save her family
from bleakest poverty by healing the sick,
telling fortunes, and blessing those facing
misfortune, conjuring “charmes” that
combine forbidden Catholic ritual, medicinal
herbs, and guidance provided by her spirit-friend,
Tibb. Though Bess compassionately uses
her powers, her granddaughter, Alizon,
unwittingly endangers her family while
under the interrogation of a conniving
local magistrate. Sharratt crafts her complex
yet credible account by seamlessly blending
historical fact, modern psychology, and
vivid evocations of the daily life
of the poor whose only hope of empowerment
lay in the black arts. Set in forests and
towers, farms and villages, deep in a dungeon
and on the gallows, this novel grows darker
as it approaches its inevitable conclusion,
but proves uplifting in its portrayal of
women who persevere, and mothers and daughters
who forgive. (Apr.) |
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Press for Daughters
of the Witching Hill
When Minnesotan Mary Sharratt moved to England, she
was soon bewitched
—Feature article in Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Pendle Witches Cast Their Spell on American Author
—Feature article in Lancashire Telegraph
How I Became a Daughter of the Witching Hill
—Article on Bookbrowse.com
Praise for Daughters of the Witching Hill
Daughters of the Witching Hill offers a fresh approach
with witches who believe in their own power and yet, in many ways,
are still innocent. Sharratt's readers—like the magistrate who
took the women's confessions—are likely to be spellbound by their
stories.
—M.L. Johnson, AP, San Francisco Chronicle
Full of the reality of the day, this story
is stark and real, but Sharratt's descriptions
of landscape and the daily life of the poor
at the time are rich enough to feed the senses.
The author weaves this vast canvas of changing
culture into the personal stories of these
women, and in the process transports us to
a distant land, a distant time—and deep into
the story of people we sympathize with and
care about.
—Linda White, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Sharratt successfully combines excellent historical
detail, drama, and emotional accounts that blend beautifully into
a vibrant story. Perfectly plotted, impressive, and full of tension,
this is most assuredly a bewitching tale. Highly recommended.
—Rebecca Roberts, Historical Novels Review,
Editor's Choice Pick
A breathless page turner … Daughters of
the Witching Hill leads to any exciting conclusion, of course—the
gory, dramatic horror of the witch trial—but when readers
close the book, that's amazingly not the part we remember. We
come to know these 'witches' as people, skilled in herbal or even
magical healing, yes, but also in demanding respect from others,
and of themselves.
—Kristen Thiel, Rain Taxi
Every time I picked this book up I was immediately
transported to Pendle Forest and completely absorbed in the story
of these women. . . . I encourage all to read this enchanting story.
—Bookbrowse.com,
Editor's Choice Pick
This book is a new approach to an old subject and
will take you back to a time when innocence was lost because of
fear, petty revenge and superstition. It will bewitch you.
—Mary Daugherty, The News-Enterprise
Daughters of the Witching Hill is very different
for Sharratt, yet just as rich and compelling
as this author’s
previous works. Bess and her clan live and
breathe on the pages of Sharratt’s book—at least for
a while—and
we come away from the experience with a fresh
view of what might really have happened in Lancashire in 1612.
—Sienna Powers, January Magazine
This is first and foremost a story about strong
women. . . . Mary Sharratt does a good job
with the suspense built around the hunt and
the minimal evidence needed to cry witch and
hang a person at this time in history.
—Amy Gwiazdowski, Bookreporter.com
The so-called witches in Mary Sharratt's awe-ful
novel—in which the reader is filled with awe
at the courage of Mother Demdike and her family
and neighbors—are cunning women who have
the misfortune to live in the Protestant police
state that we know as Elizabethan and Jacobean
England. Heartbreaking and inspiring at the
same time, Daughters of
the Witching Hill is
a book you won't soon forget.
Barbara Ardinger, Feathered Quill Book Reviews
A fascinating tale. The story unfolds without melodrama
and is therefore all the more powerful. Recommended for fans of
Katherine Howe’s The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.
— Jamie Kallio, Library Journal (Starred
Review)
The Pendle witches’ story, retold as
a passionate saga of female friendship.
—Kirkus Reviews
Sharratt fills the book with fascinating accounts
of rituals and magic practices, and her gift for the language of
the era brings the narrative to life. Striking just the right balance
between the demands of fact and the allure of a good story, she
has produced a novel that’s both convincing and compelling.
Daughters is—literally—a spellbinding book.
—Julie Hale, BookPage
What an original voice
Mary Sharratt has. She brings a haunting,
ancient story — part of the local
legend and history of where she lives — into life with vivid
characters and a gripping plot. Old, lost,
long-ago ways are made real.
—Karleen Koen, author of Through a Glass
Darkly and Dark
Angels
Sharratt’s witches break the stereotype
of "crones and sirens" and are vividly rendered.
An authentic portrait of a dangerous time.
—Margaret George, author of Helen of Troy
Like a darker early Alice Hoffman.
—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
Daughters of the Witching Hill cast
a powerful spell over me as I sped
through the pages, utterly transfixed.
Readers are hereby warned of their
own potential enchantment by this bewitching
tale.
—Katharine Weber, author of True Confections and Triangle
I have rarely read a historical novel that
captures the voices of another time as gracefully
and fully as Mary Sharratt does in Daughters
of the Witching Hill. In beautifully evocative prose,
she calls up the beauties and joys of their
world as fully as she details the cruelties
and greed that destroyed it — and them.
—Margaret Frazer, author of the Sister
Frevisse Mysteries and the Joliffe Player Mysteries
No one casts a spell like Mary Sharratt.
I was enchanted by this wonderfully absorbing
novel, fascinated by the very real yet magical
world of the Pendle witches.
—Sandra Gulland, author of the Josephine
B. Trilogy and Mistress of the Sun
Mary Sharatt’s Daughters of the Witching
Hill is a powerful tale of the narrow gap between
good and evil and how easily one can slip — or
be pushed — into the abyss. Her portrayal
of the complex pressures of poverty and social
change on the wise women of Pendle Forest is
compassionate and compelling.
—Judith Lindbergh, author of The Thrall’s
Tale
A remarkable story, powerful
and compelling and ultimately heart-breaking.
—Sharon Kay Penman, author of The Sunne in Splendour, Here Be Dragons,
The Devil's Brood, and Time and Chance |
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The Vanishing Point
About the Book
Excerpt
Buy
the Book
Amazon
Amazon
U.K. |
|
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An
intelligent and gripping book that
takes us to the New World of outcasts—indentured servants, mail-order
brides, failed tobacco planters, slaves—rather
than the more prosperous early Americans
we know from conventional historical
accounts. Mary Sharratt has
a passion for her story, and it shows.
—Kathy Weissman, BookReporter.com
A 17th-century treasury of guilty pleasures … Without being trashy, Sharratt includes
many of the guilty pleasures of romantic fiction: young women with burgeoning
sexuality, time-appropriate ways for gathering berries, planting herbs, skinning
animals and preparing meals. Most important, she knows how to string the reader
briskly along to the novel's ultimate revelations.
—Cherie Parker, Minneapolis Star Tribune
A solid story … easy to read and hard to put down.
—Gwyneth J. Saunders, Maryland Independent
Her finely crafted, convincing novel
is a captivating story full of
dark suspense.
—Sherri Wright, Owner, Book Crossing Bookstore, Baltimore, Maryland
The Vanishing Point is
a well-researched historical novel
with complex characters and enough
plot twists and surprises to keep
readers guessing and second-guessing
right up to the end … The
rich period detail truly gives
the flavor of life in 17th century
Maryland.
—Sharon Parker, Twin Cities Daily Planet
An authentically detailed period piece
with elements of gothic suspense thrown in for good measure.
—Margaret Flanagan, Booklist
This is exactly what historical fiction
should be: full of vivid, vibrant characters who make you feel what
they feel, hope what they hope and suffer what they suffer. This
tale of two very different sisters who make their fortunes in the
New World pulled me right in and made me lose all sense of time
and place. Sensitively written and beautifully rendered, Sharratt has
produced a true keeper.
—Sarah Weinman, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind: Picks of the
Week
Mary Sharratt's new novel, The Vanishing Point, is a
page-turner, a mystery, a quietly feminist tale, and a richly researched
historical novel with ever-unfolding plot twists … The plot
questions will keep you reading. But Sharratt's underlying message
will keep you thinking long after the questions are answered.
—Laurie Hertzel, Minnesota Magazine
Sharratt's description of frontier life
is so sharp, you can feel and taste it with the characters. The
story alternates between each sister's tale, and the two vibrant
women are sympathetic and interesting.
—Diana Scott Lewis, Historical Novels Review
This well-researched book will provide
readers with an insight into life on the wild edges of the fledgling
nation that became the USA, through the eyes of a tough and determined
young woman. It's a woman's book in the best sense of that term,
but not 'chick lit' by any definition.
—Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader
The Vanishing Point is
a truly captivating novel. It wears its history lightly, in the best tradition
of great historical fiction. Mary Sharratt has a marvelously light
touch, never requiring the reader to stop and admire her research, yet, because
she also has a sure hand as a storyteller, she keeps the reader completely
engaged, from first page to last.
—Katharine Weber, author of Triangle; The Little Women; The
Music Lesson; Objects in the Mirror
Are Closer Than They Appear
The Vanishing Point sings!
May, Hannah, Adele and Gabriel stole my heart. Mary Sharratt's
details of seventeenth century economics and medicine
enhance her story, yet she never loses sight of love,
hope, loss and regret. Her characters adjust to a new
country and a continually changing view of one another
and the past — a theme that resonates into our
times. An enthralling and unusual tale from a compassionate
writer.
—Shauna Singh Baldwin, author of What The Body Remembers and Winner
of the Commonwealth Prize
Mary Sharratt's The Vanishing Point is
her best novel yet, a passionate, spell-casting story; the world she creates
is vivid, intimate, evocative. The harrowing narrative held me captive as
secrets were slowly revealed. I was unable to put this book down.
—Sandra Gulland, author of the Josephine B. Trilogy and Mistress
of the Sun
Set in seventeenth-century Maryland, THE VANISHING POINT is a novel of dark suspense, love, and betrayal featuring two star-crossed sisters, one lost and the other searching.
In the tradition of Philippa Gregory's smart, transporting fiction comes this tale of two independent, spirited sisters. Bright and inquisitive, Hannah Powers was raised by a father who treated her as if she were his son. While her beautiful and reckless sister, May, pushes the limits of propriety in their small English town, Hannah harbors her own secret: their father has trained her in the physician's art, an education forbidden to women. But Hannah's secret serves her well when she journeys to colonial Maryland to reunite with May, who has been married off to a distant cousin after her sexual misadventures ruined her marriage prospects in England.
As Hannah searches for May, who has disappeared, she finds herself falling in love with her brother-in-law, even as she struggles to believe his claim that her sister died in childbirth. Alone in a wild, uncultivated land where the old rules no longer apply, Hannah is freed from the constraints of the society that judged both her and May as dangerous — too smart, too fearless, and too hungry for life. But Hannah is also plagued by doubt, as her quest for answers to May's fate grows ever more disturbing and tangled.
The Vanishing Point is a marvelously assured period piece. Sharratt's ten years of research on everything from seventeeth-century pharmacology to pioneer cooking are evident on each page. In this gripping, evocative novel, rich in texture and authenticity, Sharratt brings to vivid life a distant world that feels as immediate and relevant as our own.
The Vanishing Point will be published as a Mariner Original in June, 2006, and has sold to Editorial Suma de Letras (World Spanish rights), btb Verlag (German translation rights), and Objetiva (Brazilian/Portugese language rights)
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Bitch Lit
About the Book
Excerpt
Buy the Book
Amazon
Amazon
U.K.
|
A
refreshing alternative to Chick Lit, Bitch Lit is
a smart and subversive celebration of female
anti-heroes. These are stories about women who take the law into
their own hands, who defy society's expectations, put their own
needs first, and don't feel guilty. They feature heroines who give
Lady Macbeth, Medea and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca a run for their
money. All these stories, in one way or another, are tales of women
and power. They goad us and dare us to strip off our niceness, leave
our safe haven and go out into the dark woods knowing that the most
dangerously sublime thing to be encountered in that forest is ourselves
unleashed. Contributing authors include Sophie Hannah, Sherry Ashworth
and Cath Staincliffe. |
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The Real Minerva is the Winner of the 2005 WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction. The WILLA Awards, inspired by the writing of Willa Cather, are given annually to honor the best literature published during the previous year for women's stories set in the West. Women Writing the West underwrites and presents this nationally recognized award each year. Winners were chosen by professional librarians and historians.
The Real Minerva is now available in paperback.
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The Real Minerva
Houghton Mifflin
September 2004
About the Book
Excerpt
Reviews
Discussion Guide
Buy the Book
Amazon
Amazon
U.K. |
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Sharratt's
luminous second novel captivates the reader from the first page with
an intriguing tale of three strong women who struggle against the repression
of both the town and the times they live in.
—Deborah Donovan, BookPage
Entertaining go-girl fiction, sort of a less sentimental Fried Green Tomatoes.
—Christina Schmitt, City Pages
It's a good read and one which encapsulates a world which
has gone forever, thank goodness.
—Mary Vernon, Townsville Bulletin, Australia
Compelling reading.
—Marie Bruni, The Daily Star, Oneonta, New York
Once again, Sharratt takes on difficult subjects—class differences,
violence against women, small town conformity—and places them in a bygone
era to tell a story that is powerful and haunting.
—Book Sense: Barb Wieser, Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, Minneapolis
Congenial to modern tastes in its feminist sensibilities, the novel is a
good old-fashioned story of perfidy, villainous conduct, and small-town censoriousness
against which three heroines, each doughty in her own way, strike back.
—Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe
This second book from Sharratt is both lively and memorable, and also a reminder
that it is possible to craft a good, old-fashioned novel from the most basic
elements … a well-researched and entertaining period piece.
—Susan Coll, Washington Post Book World
In her elegant and detailed writing, Sharratt builds her Minerva as a place
the reader can touch and smell. The Real Minerva is ultimately an engrossing
tale … a good story that many readers should enjoy.
—Cherie Park, Minneapolis Star Tribune
A 1920s farm girl finds her warrior strength.
—Mary Ann Grossmann, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Though it's set in 1920s Minnesota (a world which Sharratt brings to life
in vivid detail), this novel reverberates into our 21st-century lives.
—David Abrams, January Magazine
A heartfelt tale of female empowerment … [the] emotionally satisfying,
old-fashioned happy ending should be a crowd pleaser.
—Publisher's Weekly
This novel is a paean to the bond between mothers and daughters, actual and
otherwise … Having woven fairytales into Summit Avenue (2000), Sharratt
now threads The Odyssey through this engrossing tale.
—Booklist
The Real Minerva is an amazing novel: mythic
and mysterious, sensual and compelling, deliciously suspenseful.
—Sandra
Gulland, author of the Josephine B. Trilogy and Mistress of
the Sun
Is it possible to leave your past behind and become
someone wholly different? This strongly plotted, fiercely imagined novel
centers on a small town's secrets and the harrowing choices that three
women will be forced to make as each struggles to pursue her dreams in
a society where restraints far outweigh liberties.
Minerva, Minnesota, in 1923 is the picture of Willa
Cather-like gentility. It's also a small town of limited opportunity,
a place where the status quo is firmly entrenched and rigidly enforced.
The troubled relationship between young Penny and her mother, Barbara,
is getting worse. Disturbed by her mother's affair with the man they
clean house for, Penny answers an ad to work for Cora Egan, a Chicago
society woman who has fled a bad marriage and intends to raise her child
alone on her grandfather's farm. Cora's situation shocks Minerva, but
over time her presence opens a door in Penny's and Barbara's lives. Through
these women, Mary Sharratt considers what it takes to reinvent
the self, to claim one's true identity.
The exquisite historical detail and emotional resonance
of The Real Minerva will appeal to readers who enjoy classic storytelling
with a modern spirit.
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Set in Minnesota during the years 1911-1919, Mary Sharratt's
acclaimed debut novel is the story of a young German immigrant who translates
fairy tales for an enigmatic older woman. The heroine is drawn into a
mysterious new world as the tales assume a reality of their own, mirroring
her awakening in a time of alienation and war.
Now in its third printing, Summit Avenue is
one the publisher's all time best-sellers. A book discussion group favorite, Summit
Avenue was a Booksense 76 Pick and was nominated for the ForeWord
Magazine Book of the Year Award. |
Author
photo at top, © Dirk Vietzke.
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