Katherine Howe (1)

Join the Laurel Book Club for a group discussion of the book; copies may be picked up at the circulation desk beginning approximately a month beforehand. Set in Cambridge and Marblehead Massachusetts, Howe's book alternates between 1991 and the Salem Witchcraft trials of the late 17th century as contemporary ... (more)college student Connie Goodwin tries to unravel the secret of Deliverance Dane.

Join Katherine Howe at an event co-sponsored by Wellesley Booksmith, the Wellesley Free Library, and the Wellesley Newcomers. Katherine Howe’s ancestors settled Essex County, Massachusetts in the 1620s, and stayed there through the twentieth century. Family members included Elizabeth Proctor, who survived ... (more)the Salem witch trials, and Elizabeth Howe, who did not. Katherine Howe is completing a PhD in American and New England Studies at Boston University, which included teaching a research seminar on New England witchcraft. The idea for this novel developed while she was studying for her doctoral qualifying exams, walking her dog through the woods between Marblehead and Salem. She lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts with her husband and assorted animals.

Scholars of the Salem witch trials have long asked why the accusers chose to ruin so many lives. In The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, author Katherine Howe asks another question - what if the women really were witches? In the novel, Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin finds the name “Deliverance ... (more)Dane” on a scrap of paper inside an old Bible. The discovery launches her on a quest that includes visions of a woman condemned in 1690s Salem for practicing “physick” - herbal healing - and her own efforts to save her injured boyfriend through an ancient and mystical cure. Before time runs out, she must locate the actual physick book of Deliverance Dane. As the pieces of Deliverance’s harrowing story fall into place, Goodwin begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem’s dark past than she imagined. Katherine Howe is completing a Ph.D. in American and New England Studies at Boston University. Two of her ancestors were tried as witches in 1692. Elizabeth Proctor survived the ordeal; Elizabeth Howe did not. The idea for The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane developed while Howe was studying for her exams, walking her dog through the woods between Marblehead and Salem, Massachusetts. She lives in Marblehead with her husband.

Topping local and national bestseller lists, this is THE book of the summer, especially in Salem! Katherine Howe takes her PhD in American Studies to craft this tale of a grad student unraveling family secrets in Salem and Marblehead. Finding a key and a scrap of paper reading only “Deliverance Dane ... (more)while readying her grandmother’s house for sale, Connie Goodwin begins a search for answers that leads her toward a mysterious book and important revelations about her family and the Salem witch trials. Reading followed by Q&A and book signing. ISBN 9781401340902, Hyperion Voice, June 2009