Hester is an interesting book and it is certainly a fascinating look at The Scarlet Letter. “Little pockets and camouflage for flaws with no hint of what’s hidden beneath the flare of a bell sleeve, the bones of a corset, or the inset of a shorting.”Ĭlick on this graphic to explore the book page on LibraryThing! This graphic was used as my staff pick blurb at the bookstore I work at. “The best dresses offer secrets but no surprises,” Aileen said when we were alone.

Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Laurie Lico Albanese’s Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel’s story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a real American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of unusual women being accused of witchcraft. In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country’s complicated past, and learns that America’s ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller the enchanter and the enchanted. As the weeks pass and Edward’s safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows–while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. But only days after they’ve arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic–leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Glasgow for a fresh start in the New World. Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. It’s been a very long time since I read The Scarlet Letter, but given my love of the Emma-Stone-led Easy A, I figured I could do with reading another adaptation.

Hester was sent to me while still in the manuscript stage last October.

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese