Calligraphy of the Witch

by Alicia Gaspar De Alba

Book Overview

A rich historical novel about a Latina slave who is swept up in the Salem witchcraft trials by an excruiciating act of betrayal, 'Calligraphy of the Witch' tells the story of Concepcion Benavidez who is sold into slavery in Boston."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312366418
• ISBN13: 9780312366414
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 373 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Profound and Touching Story of Survival

I just finished this book as my 5 year old Cancer mija, Isabella Maya, lay napping next to me, it seemed appropriate. Reading the final pages of both the story itself and the postscript kept a steady stream of tears streaming down my face. I strongly recomend this book for anyone who wants to moved and touched by writing that is simultaneously beautiful and powerful. This is a novel that will present you with each page you turn will present you with gifts of insights as women, men, mothers, daughters, sisters. I would like to thank the author of this novel, GRACIAS, thank you for writing such a prolific story that reached down into the depths of my spirit as a mother, daughter and "hermana". It reached down and smuged my spirit with copal and sage and healed something.

Awakens all your senses...

Rarely does a novel awaken all my senses, and stirs every emotion possible in the human soul. It is definately a story I will not soon forget, and definately will be remembered as one of my favorite novels. This is a historical novel which happens in the late 1600's during the famous Salem Witch trials. Concepcion is a bastard child born to a Mexican government official and an Indian mother. Abandoned by her mother in Mexico after she had been indentured to a nun convent, Concepcion runs away with a friend only to be seized by Pirates and taken to New England. She arrives in New England pregnant after being repeatedly raped by the ships Captain. The captain discovers her gift of calligraphy, renames her Thankful Seagraves, and sells her to a Boston merchant who plans to have her manage her father-in-laws farm while caring for the crippled man. Unable to speak English, deathly ill and terrified, Thankful gives birth to a daughter who her owner's wife covets. For 8 years Thankful and her daughter are pulled between two worlds. Although she proves herself in her ability to care for the crippled man, learns to speak and write English and brings profits to the farm, she is considered unacceptable as a bi-racial servent who speaks a foreign language and is Catholic. Rebecca, her owners wife, slowly turns her daughter against her. Throughout the novel, Concepcion keeps a journal that she hopes one day will be read by the daughter she loves so much. The journal gives you insight into what life was like in the 1600's. When the hysteria of the Salem withcraft trials begin, Capcion's own daughter implicates her as a witch, sending her to the cold, filthy dungeons. The ending is bittersweet, creating a surge of emotions for readers.