Hester

An exploration of the lasting effects of New England's witchcraft trials, as well as a vivid reconstruction of the woman who served as the model for Hester Prynne, the tragic protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

Who is Hester Prynne in real life?

When Isobel Gamble and her husband Edward went out from Scotland in the early 1800s, Isobel was a young seamstress who was carrying the secrets of generations. Due to his overwhelming debt, the opium-sick pharmacist had to leave Edinburgh in order to make a new beginning in the New World. But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic––leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible.

When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows––while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. Nathaniel and Isobel become closer and closer as the weeks go by and it seems less and less likely that Edward will return home safely. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. Which is which, though?

In this seductive and captivating story, a young immigrant lady discovers that America's ideals of independence and liberty often fall short of their promises as she wrestles with our nation's complex history. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel's story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a "real" American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of "unusual" women being accused of witchcraft. Thoroughly examined but vividly envisioned, Hester is