Erika Mailman
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The Witch's Trinity: A Novel
Erika Mailman
The year is 1507, and the remote German village Tierkinddorf has been suffering a famine. A traveling friar has a book called the Malleus Maleficarum—“The Witch’s Hammer”—a guide to gaining confessions of witchcraft. Hungry Tierkinddorf is filled with hope that the woman who has brought God’s anger upon the town will be found and burned.
Güde, an elderly woman, has stark and frightening visions. She has become an object of scorn and a burden to her son’s wife. In these desperate times her daughter-in-law would prefer one less hungry mouth at the family table. As the friar turns his eye on each member of the tiny community, Güde dreads what her daughter-in-law might say to win his favor.
Then one terrible night Güde follows an unearthly voice and the scent of charred meat into the snow-filled woods. Come morning, she no longer knows if the horror she witnessed was real or imagined. She only knows that if the friar hears of it, she may be damned in this life as well as the next.
