Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
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 2021 book cover image | |
| Author | Rivka Galchen |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Natasha Soudek |
| Genre | Fiction, Historical novel |
| Set in | 17th-century Germany |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date | June 8, 2021 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Hardcover, E-book, Audio book |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 9780374280468 |
| OCLC | 1269024553 |
| LC Class | PS3607.A4116 E94 2021 |
| Preceded by | 'Atmospheric Disturbances' |
| Website | Macmillan |
Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is a historical fiction novel written by Rivka Galchen and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on June 8, 2021.[1][2] The book is a fictionalized version of true events.[3] Part of the historical background of this story is that "between 1625 and 1631, under the Catholic Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg, the Holy Roman Empire saw one of the biggest mass trials in European history, with an estimated 900 people executed in the Würzburg witch trials."[4]
This story is set in the 17th century in the Holy Roman Empire during the beginnings of the Thirty Years War and the plague. In this fictionalized version of the illiterate Katharina Kepler's later life, she is accused of witchcraft. Part of the reason for the accusation is because she lives into old age when most people die around the age of 30. Other reasons are related to her personal quirks. Also, the label of "witch" comes at first from Ursula Reinbold and then snowballs into many in her community accusing her of the same. Her son Johannes Kepler was compelled to absent himself from the royal court to defend his mother. She is also aided by two of her other children as well as her sympathetic legal guardian, scribe, and neighbor, Simon.[4][3][5][6]