Trade paperback in good condition with some wear on the cover. From the back:

"Jennet Stearn's father hangs witches for a living in Restoration England. But when she witnesses the unjust and horrifying execution of her beloved aunt Isabel, the precocious child decides to make it her life's mission to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act. Armed with little save the power of reason, and determined to see justice prevail, Jennet hurls herself into a series of picaresque adventures--traveling from King William's Britain to the fledgling American Colonies to an uncharted island in the Caribbean, braving West Indies pirates, Algonquin Indian captors, the machinations of the Salem Witch Court, and the sensuous love of a young Ben Franklin. For Jennet cannot and must not rest until she had put the last witchfinder out of business."

"[Morrow] pulls off so many dazzling feats of literary magic that in a different century he'd have been burned at the stake...Watch out for James Morrow: He's magic." -- Washington Post Book World

This is not your ordinary historical fiction. James Morrow uses the story of Jennet Stearne to explore the the clash of Reason and Revelation whose battles are still going on in our own times. Jennet is an appealing character whose single-minded devotion to eliminating witchfinding causes her pain and gives her power. I particularly liked the device of using a book's "voice" (Newton's Principia Mathematica) to introduce and comment on the story. Morrow writes with confidence and elegance. Highly recommend this book.

Selected by deadsteen as part of my Historical Fiction VBB. I really liked this one. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

From MarysGirl Historical Fiction VBB. Arrived today, thank you!