The Heretic's Daughter

A courageous woman fights to survive the darkest days of the Salem Witch Trials in this "heart-wrenching story of family love and sacrifice" (USA Today).

Salem, 1752. Sarah Carrier Chapman, weak with infirmity, writes a letter to her granddaughter that reveals the secret she has closely guarded for six decades: how she survived the Salem Witch Trials when her mother did not.

Sarah's story begins more than a year before the trials, when she and her family arrive in a New England community already gripped by superstition and fear. As they witness neighbor pitted against neighbor, friend against friend, the hysteria escalates -- until more than two hundred men, women, and children have been swept into prison. Among them is Sarah's mother, Martha Carrier. In an attempt to protect her children, Martha asks Sarah to commit an act of heresy -- a lie that will most surely condemn Martha even as it will save her daughter.

This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.

Author: Kathleen Kent
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Published: 09/03/2008
Pages: 496
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.10lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.50w x 1.60d
ISBN: 9780316037532
Large Print

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 6.8
Point Value: 17
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 126302 / Heretic's Daughter

Award: Langum Prize for Historical Literature - Winner
Award: Grand Canyon Reader Award - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 09/14/2008 pg. 26
People Weekly 09/22/2008 pg. 69

About the Author
Kathleen Kent is the author of the Edgar Award-nominated The Dime, as well as the bestselling historical novels The Heretic's Daughter, The Traitor's Wife, and The Outcasts. Kent lives in Dallas, TX.