Silence

Name: Silence
ISBN: 9781736795491

by Julia Park Tracey

Publisher

Sibylline Press

Publication

Sep 24, 2024

Format

Paperback/Softback

Illustrated

Price

Dimensions

5.315 x 8.465 in

ISBN

9781736795491

ASIN

173679549X

Pages

272

Age

Adult 18+

Rights Sold

LanguageSpanishCountryMexicoAgent-BuyerEditores Mexicanos Unidos S.A.

Description

After three grievous losses, Puritan woman Silence Marsh dares to question God aloud in the church, and that blasphemy lands her in trouble—she is silenced for a year by the powers that govern. Broken in heart and spirit, Silence learns to mime and sign, but it isn’t until a new Boston doctor comes to her backward Cape Cod village that she begins to hope again. Rather than treating Silence with bleeding or leeches, Dr. Greenleaf prescribes fresh air, St. John’s Wort, long walks—and reading. Silence has half a hope of getting through her year of punishment when the cry of witchcraft poisons the village. Colonial Massachusetts is still reeling from the Salem Witch Trials just 20 years before. Now, after demanding her silence, she is called to witness at a witchcraft trial—or be accused herself. A whiff of sulfur and witchcraft shadows this literary Puritan tale of loss and redemption, based on this bestselling historical fiction author’s own ancestor, her seventh greatgrandmother, Silence Greenleaf.

Awards & Endorsements

Review

“Park Tracey, the author of The Bereaved (2023), is a remarkable writer, and this book is another triumph. The character of Silence is a wonderful creation who endures a life suffering, doubt, and blazing anger, and readers will be invested in her fate. The archaic language and fine detail relate what it was like to live in a typical household of the time, all the household practices of everyday life, and how, for example, to prepare for long winters: Withal, the apples have been cut and dried, the apple-butter crocked, the cider pressed. Crane-berries and wild grape are gathered and dried. A historically astute and compelling must read.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Julia Park Tracey's Silence is a powerful, lyrical marvel of a novel. The challenges that Silence March faces and the questions that she struggles with after she has been sentenced to a year of silence by her Separatist community not only create a vivid and authentic picture of Puritan New England, but also resonate in meaningful ways with our own times. Silence's story is both haunting and inspiring, and I am grateful to Julia Park Tracey for having given her such a captivating voice.” —Jean Hegland, author of Into the Forest

“I’m a huge fan of Julia Park Tracey. Her new novel Silence is a moving, transcendent novel in the vein of Groff’s Matrix and Toews’s Women Talking. Historical fiction, yes, but more importantly an inquiry into female agency and power in a world that takes the breaking of the spirit as its right. Beautiful.” —Christian Kiefer, author of The Heart Of It All

Kirkus Reviews

In Tracey’s historical novel, set in early-18th-century Massachusetts, a young Puritan widow

named Silence Marsh is sentenced to a year of silence.

Silence was recently married to a good, loving man, Constable David Marsh, whose rank gave her the title of “Mistress,” rather than the more common “Goodwife,” and she has a kind and prosperous extended family. However, within a six-month span, her mother, her husband, and her infant daughter all die. At a Sabbath meeting, while listening to a typical Puritan fire-and-brimstone sermon, she loses her composure—screaming and cursing a seemingly capricious God who chose to punish her with such tragedy. For this sacrilege, she receives several punishments, with the final one being that she must not speak for a calendar year; to further atone, she voluntarily refuses even to write messages. From here on, the story focuses on Silence’s personal struggle with her conscience; however, she does still have friends, including a talented Boston apothecary, Mrs. Greenleaf, who looks after Silence’s failing health. So does the apothecary’s son, Daniel Greenleaf, who recently graduated from Harvard with a medical degree and does wonders for “Mistress Tacit,” as he teasingly calls Silence. Young Zuriel Hobart, who’s badly abused by her stepmother and desperate for a friend, becomes Silence’s protégé in the household arts. It all comes to a head when Zuriel accuses her truly wicked stepmother of witchcraft—...

Author(s)

Julia Park Tracey

Julia Park Tracey is an awardwinning journalist, editor, poet laureate, and author of several books. Inspired by a mysterious train receipt in her family’s scrapbook, she researched her Orphan Train roots and wrote The Bereaved about her found relatives. She has ancestors—or should we say ansisters? In digging through her family history, she has uncovered a trove of powerful women who break rules and stand tall against whatever dares to oppose them. One such heroine is the Puritan woman named Silence Greenleaf. Julia lives in the low Sierra of California in a carefully restored 1880 Victorian, with her family and beloved cats, bees and chickens.