4 Seasons Adult Fiction Book Club

The Four Seasons Fiction Book Club returns this Fall to discuss one book on the theme of "Witches" as selected by book club participants. If your registration status is "waitlisted," all the "book club books" are reserved, but you're welcome to obtain your own copy or wait for a book to be returned. In either case, you're welcome to attend to the discussion!
 

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

"The Scarlet Letter" is re-imagined from the point of view of a woman who might have inspired Hester Prynne.

In 1829, young Isobel Gamble and her husband Edward emigrate from Scotland to Salem, Massachusetts, seeking a new start to their lives. Soon after they arrive, Edward returns to sea as a medic, leaving Isobel to support herself using her fine needlework skills. She conceals the colorful perceptions of her synesthesia, as she already endures and suffers from the town's bigotry as an immigrant and one whose husband may have deserted her.

As Isobel gets to know aspiring poet Nat Hathorne, his interest in her quickly progresses beyond flirtation, but Nat and Isobel both have family connections to the witch trials of the 1600s.

This well-researched novel examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59807978-hester