cover image Calligraphy of the Witch

Calligraphy of the Witch

Alicia Gaspar De Alba, . . St. Martin's, $24.95 (373pp) ISBN 978-0-312-36641-4

A spirited indentured servant gets tangled up in the 17th-century Massachusetts Bay Colony witch hunts in this ambitious historical drama. Halfway through her 15-year indenture at a Mexico City convent, Concepción Benavidez escapes only to be captured by pirates and taken to Boston, where she's sold into slavery. Nathaniel Greenwood, a local merchant, is impressed that the “papist slave” can write and purchases her to help his disabled father-in-law manage his chicken farm. Renamed Thankful Seagraves, Concepción, who was repeatedly raped by the pirate captain, soon discovers that she's pregnant. Greenwood's barren wife, Rebecca, covets Concepción's newborn daughter, Hanna, and sets out to take her away. As their struggle over the girl unfolds, witch hysteria grips the colony, and Concepción is drawn into the fray when Hanna fingers her for a witch. De Alba's recreation is undercut by thin characterizations—the men are mostly cruel and the women victims, the notable exception being Concepción, who clings to her dignity under the most trying conditions. But De Alba (Sor Juana's Second Dream ) has a firm grasp of her historical material and portrays the pirate life as convincingly as the witch trials. Readers interested in the period will want to give this a look. (Oct.)