The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. Katherine Howe. Westminster, Md. : Books on Tape, 2009.
$100.00
ISBN: 9780307701978

Connie's career is finally falling into place after years of hard work and study. She has been accepted as a Harvard PhD candidate in American Colonial Studies.  Connie is also spending her summer in her grandmother's house, a dilapidated and ignored mess that hasn't been inhabited in years.  As Connie begins the daunting task of cleaning out the house, she discovers a key hidden in a Bible with the name Deliverance Dane written on a piece of old paper wrapped around it.  Connie's interest is piqued and she tries to uncover more about the mysterious name hidden in her grandmother's house.  Yet, as Connie sorts out the mystery of Deliverance Dane she soon discovers ties to the Salem witch trials.  Was Deliverance truly a witch?  If so, was the mention of her physick/spellbook in historical records proof that the witch trials were more than just the wild lies and imagination of a bunch of young girls, or were the events evidence that witches existed, and maybe, still practice their craft?

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is a well narrated work.  It is able to relay the tales of both Connie and Deliverance, despite their three hundred year difference.  The work incorporates historical events with fantastic occurrences.  Howe is able to capture the idea that perhaps witches do exist and work with nature in order to heal.  Yet, Connie must work quickly on order to find Deliverance's book, because more people are interested in its discovery and power.  It is a work of historical fiction that strives to illustrate the idea that the Salem witch trials may have had some substance, outside the wild imaginations of a colonial town.  It delves into the possibility that there were, still are, practicing and non-malicious at work in New England.

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Physick Book of Deliverance by Katherine Howe

Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key. Tatiana De Rosnay.  North Kingstown, R.I. : BBC Audiobooks America.
$79.95
ISBN 9780792766315

(Image Credit: Cape May County Library, Cape May Court House, NJ.)

De Rosnay begins her tale by portraying the lives of two women who are separated in time by sixty years. She starts with the events that surround Sarah Starzynski, a ten-year-old girl, who is arrested by the French police, along with her parents. Before she is forced out of her home, Sarah hides her younger brother, Michel, is a secret cabinet. Before she locks the door, Sarah promises Michel that she will come back for him.

Julie Jarmond is an American reporter living in Paris, with her French husband and daughter. When she is assigned to cover the events of Vel' d'Hiv, considered one on France's darkest days, she becomes entangled in Sarah's story. As Julie discovers France's role in the Holocaust, which contributed to the execution of 76,000 French Jews, she begins to question her own life, beliefs, and marriage. Her search for Sarah leads her to a place where she never imagined she would be, yet, feels the most comfortable with herself and her life.

De Rosay writes an easy-to-read text with short chapters, which relay the details of July 16 1942, when Operation Spring Breeze went into effect. It was specifically geared towards rounding up the French Jews of Paris. They were to spend the next week locked in the Velodrome d'hiver, an indoor cycle track, near the Eiffel Tower. Most of the Jews who were sent to the Velodrome, mostly women and small children, where eventually sent to Auschwitz and executed. In all there were 12,884 Jews who were arrested: 4,051 children, 5,802 women and 3,031 men who were part of Vel d'Hiv. On July 16, 1995, French President Jaques Chirac, made the first public apology on behalf of the government for its participation in the Holocaust.

Awards:
New York Times Bestseller Fiction 2008
Publisher's Weekly Staff Member Pick 2008

A movie of Sarah's Key will be released in 2010, starring Kristin Scott Thomas as Julie Jarmond.