But we don’t experience her life in order. The story slips a bit back and forth in time as we follow Rue from her childhood in slaverytime to her adolescence in wartime and eventually her heartbreaking experiences in freedomtime. And isn’t that generally the way of things? But, it begins with the boy, Bean, and ends with him, too. Because in Rue’s attempts to save what she can, she very nearly destroys what she loves most.Įscape Rating A: Conjure Women is Rue’s story, Rue and her mother Miss May Belle are the conjure women of the title. But of making a life that is more than mere survival. Of living through adversity, heartbreak and even despair. ![]() A contingency with a life measured in months.Īnd yet, in spite of everything that hangs over Rue’s life, this is a story of living. Her dad is killed at the owner’s whim for a crime he did not commit, because the white girl who is both Rue’s friend and her enemy carelessly mentions his name when her father is looking for someone to blame for her out-of-wedlock pregnancy.Įven after the war, when she and her people are not merely free but temporarily ignored by the whites that surround their tiny, self-sufficient village, she knows that their freedom and prosperity is contingent on whites not stumbling over them. She can be sold at any time – and very nearly is. Everything Rue has, everything she does, is conditional – and she knows it. But there is plenty of that fear and it shadows the whole story. Through the entire story Rue is one who stands tall – even when she is bowed down by trauma, grief or fear. The story of Conjure Women is the story of Miss Rue, born in slavery to the healing woman – or conjure woman – Miss May Belle and her man, a slave on the next plantation over. Magnificently written, brilliantly researched, richly imagined, Conjure Women moves back and forth in time to tell the haunting story of Rue, Varina, and May Belle, their passions and friendships, and the lengths they will go to save themselves and those they love. ![]() ![]() The secrets and bonds among these women and their community come to a head at the beginning of a war and at the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom. Spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman her precocious and observant daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother's footsteps as a midwife and their master's daughter Varina. Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Ī mother and daughter with a shared talent for healing-and for the conjuring of curses-are at the heart of this dazzling first novelĬonjure Women is a sweeping story that brings the world of the South before and after the Civil War vividly to life. Published by Random House on April 7, 2020 Genres: historical fiction, magical realism Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
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