Two sisters set sail on a bride ship from Normandy hoping to leave a curse behind them and find better lives in the wilds of 17th-century Quebec, only to meet a mysterious witch who forces them to confront the truth about magic-and their past. For fans of Emilia Hart, Sarah Penner, Alix E. Harrow, Ami McKay, and Roberta Rich.
Élisabeth Jossard boards a bride ship to New France with her sister Marthe, forced to start a new life after a scandal in her village in Normandy. She's harbouring a dark secret and hopes that by coming to Montreal-the holiest place in the world, she's been told-the saints will hear her pleas and lift the curse that plagues her.
When Élisabeth's spiritual pleas go unanswered and she is unable to banish the spirit she believes is tormenting her, Marthe encourages her to turn to a powerful witch for help, the enigmatic midwife-a midwife with a mysterious past. When Jeanne dismisses Élisabeth's worries about demonic possession as superstition, Élisabeth's resentment kindles a dangerous fire.
As her struggles with her demon grow more desperate, Élisabeth publicly accuses the midwife of witchcraft, putting her pregnant sister's life at risk-as well as the lives of every woman of childbearing age in the colony.
Inspired by the tales of Canada's Filles du Roi, The Winter Witch examines how lies, arrogance, and ignorance can lead to witch hunts in any society.
