Name: The Dance Tree
Rating: 4.166666666666667 (6 reviews)
ISBN: 9781529005219

Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The gripping new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mercies, The Dance Tree is a transporting story of lust, family secrets and women under the eye of the Church.

The Dance Tree

Jemima Scott

Rodrigo Figueiredo Severino

Some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read honestly. It’s amazing, I just thought the first 100 pages were a bit slow. But once it got going, it REALLY GOT GOING.

Amy Thomson

2.5☆

i was hoping for a little more dancing plague, not going to lie. there were some glimpses into why these women might have become afflicted but ultimately, it was a lot less than i had hoped for.

but most of all, i cannot stop wondering why is it about the punishment of historic lesbians that compels kiran millwood hargrave so much that it is ever-present in her work? there is so much misery permeating this book, the bittersweet ending offers barely any console.

wren

Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and as she is joined by hundreds of others, the authorities declare an emergency. Musicians will be brought in to play the Devil out of these women. Just beyond the city’s limits, pregnant Lisbet lives with her mother-in-law and husband, tending the bees that are their livelihood. And then, as the dancing plague gathers momentum, Lisbet’s sister-in-law Nethe returns from seven years’ penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name. It is a secret that Lisbet is determined to uncover. As the city buckles under the beat of a thousand feet, she finds herself thrust into a dangerous web of deceit and clandestine passion, but she is dancing to a dangerous tune . . . Set in an era of superstition, hysteria, and extraordinary change, and inspired by the true events of a doomed summer, The Dance Tree is an impassioned story of family secrets, forbidden love, and women pushed to the edge from Kiran Millwood Hargrave, the bestselling author of The Mercies.

The Dance Tree

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