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The Dance Tree: A BBC Between the Covers book club pick

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Lisbet often visits a pagan ‘Dance Tree’, a place in the forest near home where she goes to grieve silently for her lost babies. Agnethe her newfound sister-in-law has returned to the family after serving penance for the past seven years …. for a sin unknown to Lisbet and nobody seems to want Lisbet to know what that sin is!

Then an evil wizard came along and, envious of the joy I got from these books, cast a spell upon me. This is a fascinating read depicting a very different time, where science as such didn’t exist, the Church ruled daily life, women had no reality beyond their relationship to some man, father, brother, husband or son. It was a time of superstition but still a time of people living for the future. I recommend this book, definitely.Nor is there any superfluous scene in ‘The Dancing Tree’; midway, I feared there just wasn’t going to be enough of this gorgeous book to enjoy. The timing is delicately paced and very well pitched, as Lisbet, and the women who surround her, move through revelations of who they truly are, and metamorphose into new-found selves; with character arc illustrated symbolically throughout by what happens to Lisbet’s bees:

This may sound foolish, but I do still want to give her one last shot. Hear me out. I do feel that KMH writes differently depending on who she is writing for. The level of detail, the depth of emotion, the lyrical style... it all ramps up in her work written for adults, as compared to her work written for younger readers. So I figure that if her writing in her MG was too young for me to properly engage with, and her writing in her adult novels is too descriptive and lyrical for me to properly get lost in, then just MAYBE her YA is the way to go!? I do have The Deathless Girls on my tbr, so I'm determined to get to it someday and see. Thanks to NetGalley, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, and HarperVia for this ARC. The Dance Tree will be out in the US on March 14th, 2023 ** The story of her birth is the story of a comet. At the moment Gepa Bauer’s mother felt the first pain of her coming, her papa saw it, a burning star ripping the dark sky for three days while her mother laboured on all fours like a beast, her husband and sons sleeping in the barn because they were scared of her pain, of the blood, of the wise woman who came with sweet mallow and iron tongs. To the east, the comet found a farmer’s field and scorched it fully, furrowed so deep those who were there said it was like a tunnel to Hell carved in the soil. As it tore the ground, Gepa was born feet first and the agony broke her mother’s mind.’This was a stunning, breathtaking book. I am struggling to even write this review because I'm not sure how to do it justice. It was heartbreaking and infuriating and hopeful and lovely. I cannot recommend it enough. He goes whistling through the house, closing the door a little too loudly. Lisbet has always marvelled at this habit in men […]. How they move through the world so loudly, so unashamedly, without thought for who hears them, or if they disturb others.’ Kiran Millwood Hargrave explains in her Author’s Note at the end of her novel that one of the prompts she felt for writing this work was her experiencing recurrent pregnancy loss during our recent Covid pandemic. For this she used a peculiar historical episode that took place in Strasbourg in the Summer o 1518 when a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing in the streets, for no clear reason, giving rise to many other people doing the same, alarming the political and religious authorities at the time. A frenzy ensued; the drive to dance spread lasting a few months during which several people died. Documents are scarce so even today it is difficult to explain why it happened and the extent of the mania. The author in a note at the end of this book says ” It is difficult for contemporary readers to understand the absolute role of religion in medieval life, how fully it informed everything from medicine to punishment, tax to sex.” But I found this beautifully written, impactful novel to be a stunning presentation of that iron fisted influence during that time and place, in particular on women. It is brilliantly depicted through the strength and courage of three women held down by cultural and religious beliefs. In the face of punishment they defy the cruelty of men and the church (no difference really between the two here ) for the right to love, to be and show who they are. These women, Lisbet, Ida and Agnethe - marginalized, with no power or freedom, embody the strength and courage that women today will need as men try to control their health, their bodies, their choices. It’s eerily relevant and while historical fiction, it oddly felt dystopian. I was fascinated to learn of this historic event known as the Dancing Plague of 1518 and taken by the story of these women who in their own way dance to their own music. Overall there is much to recommend The Dance Tree to fans of historical fiction who long for immersion in another world but prefer escapism that provokes further thought about the time and place that we do live in. Milwood-Hargrave delivers on this, and then some. Helen Cullen

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