The Witches of Vardo: THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER: 'Powerful, deeply moving' - Sunday Times

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I spent a lot of time trying to work out why witch hunts happen and what was going on in Norway. At that time in history, it’s no coincidence that you’ve got a mini-ice age coming in causing an economic crisis and crop failings, and so blaming witches for these harvest disasters was convenient. In Vardø, the fishing yields went down – so it was bound up in economic concerns.

There is a section at the end called ‘Of Fact and Fiction’, which details out some of the persecution against women on accusations of witchcraft, and also contains a glossary. As the author says this book is one to give voice to the thousands of innocents murdered by the fearful, hateful and petty that manipulated the minds of the superstitious and aggrieved, and to make them echo into the present and future, forever living in the hearts of the people like them. I think the more books about witch trials, the better. I don’t think it’s going to saturate. Because this was hundreds of years of genocide of mainly one gender.The King may be all-powerful, but these women shall show the world an even greater power. For they shall not burn.

Unknown (2016-04-12). "Where The Ice Burns: The Condemned Women of 1662 / 1663". Where The Ice Burns . Retrieved 2019-10-25. admin (2016-12-28). "The evil north: Vardø's witch trials". The Norwegian American . Retrieved 2019-10-25.Also captive in the fortress is Anna Rhodius, once the King of Denmark’s mistress, who has been sent to Vardo in disgrace. What will she do – and who will she betray – to return to her privileged life at court? Wow what a debut. Beautiful, emotional, haunting, powerful. This is as finely crafted a debut as I've had the pleasure to read in quite some time. The prose is immaculate, the pacing is perfectly balanced, and the characters are allowed time to breathe, to grow, to become the truest version of themselves. Nothing here is rushed, and it makes it all the more impactful for it. It is said that at times there were no families in Finnmark who were not affected by the proceedings, either as prosecutors, witnesses or convicts. The Domen trials of 1662-63