In this gripping historical novel, the internationally bestselling author of The Mercies weaves a spellbinding tale of fear, transformation, courage, and love in sixteenth-century France.
“An intriguing, haunting novel pulsing with raw, beautiful emotion. Kiran Millwood-Hargrave effortlessly intertwines the stories of women tenderly and sympathetically, creating a novel in which female courage and resilience shines brightly against a brilliantly evoked backdrop of claustrophobic horror.”—Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne
Strasbourg, 1518. At the height of summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without rest, and when hundreds of other women join her, the city council orders musicians to play the Devil out of the mob.
At the city’s boundary, pregnant Lisbet lives with her husband and mother-in-law, tending the bees that are the family’s livelihood. Her quiet life is upended by the return of her sister-in-law, Nethe, from seven years in the mountains, where she has been paying penance for a crime no one will name. As the city buckles under the beat of a thousand feet, Lisbet becomes caught in a dangerous web of deceit and clandestine passion.
Set in an era of superstition, hysteria, and extraordinary change, and inspired by true events, The Dance Tree is an impassioned story of family secrets, forbidden love, and women pushed to the edge.