cover image ALL THAT LIVES: A Novel of the Bell Witch

ALL THAT LIVES: A Novel of the Bell Witch

Melissa Sanders-Self, . . Warner, $23.95 (464pp) ISBN 978-0-446-52691-3

In this debut novel, Sanders-Self paints a sympathetic portrait of an innocent girl and a community of simple, pious people under assault from forces beyond their comprehension. Historical accounts of the Bell Witch—a poltergeist that bedeviled a family of Tennessee farmers in the early 1800s—have inspired writers for more than a century. This tale adds little to the debate about the entity's purpose, but manages a credible period pastiche through its depiction of settlers struggling in the spiritual and territorial wilderness of early America. At age 13, Betsy Bell becomes the focus of the witch's torments. For more than a year, the Bell family is subjected to nocturnal noises, rains of stones, blows from invisible hands and, eventually, belligerent back talk from the articulate spirit. Over time, the spirit becomes a part of the household's daily life, unpredictably helpful one moment and destructive the next. Betsy offers more reportage than reflection, her chronicle of the family's forbearance against the being's malicious pranks often seeming no more revealing than a schoolgirl's diary. The author raises the usual speculations for why the spirit manifests—most significantly patriarch Jack Bell's sexual molestation of Betsy—but never explores them at length. The reason given for Betsy's Job-like suffering, revealed in a Socratic dialogue at the height of book's flashy finale, won't satisfy everyone, but readers will stick with the story to the end, if only because Sanders-Self allows them to share in what her heroine endures. 3-city author tour. (May 23)