The First Witch of Boston: A Novel

📚 Why We Recommend It

In 1646’s Massachusetts Bay Colony, the stern shadow of Puritanism looms over every corner. Margaret and Thomas arrive with dreams of a new life in the New World: she is a bold healer unafraid to use herbs, he a gentle, cautious partner, their love meant to take root in the American wilderness. But in a community that fears difference, Margaret’s bluntness and medical skills become her undoing—neighbors’ malicious whispers, religious hysteria, and sudden tragedies conspire to brand her a “witch.”

This novel, based on a real historical figure, unfolds through the diary Thomas discovers after her execution, revealing the fate of North America’s first convicted witch. It’s more than a story of injustice; it lays bare a marriage strained by fear and prejudice: while the world sees her as a threat, only Thomas remembers the glow of her face by the fire, her focus while tending the sick, and her words, “I refuse to live as a shadow.”

With the rigor of a Cambridge historian and the sensitivity of a novelist, Andrea Catalano breathes life into the struggles of women’s autonomy, mob frenzy, and love that lay buried under 300 years of dust. If you’re drawn to the silenced voices of women in history, or crave stories that resonate with the light and darkness of human nature, this book is a key to a world both distant and eerily familiar—where fear endures, but courage and love always flicker in the dark.