title: Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by: Galchen, Rivka published: 2021-06-08 read: 2021-07 preview

Scene: anno 1615 near Stuttgart.  The main character is a women in her late 60, having three children, her husband gone (or died) as mercenary, many a year ago.  Seemingly unimportant detail: one of her children is called Johannes Kepler, the court mathematician in Linz.

Katharina gets suspected of witchcraft by her neighbours. A version of the story in The Marginalian is worth a read. Her son helps her with his influence as much as he can, and indeed she goes to Linz twice to flee from the accusations; but cannot stay away from home that long.  After all, she has her beloved cow at home, and the neighbour who’s a good friend.  So… a few back and forths, in the end she is arrested.  Legislation back then said, if you have a close family member who was a witch, then an accusation is enough for a conviction.  In other cases, at least two witnesses are needed.

Things look bleak for her, she stays in prison for quite a while.  Kepler, the court’s mathematician, is able to use his power for her benefit. 

The book is gripping, and allows you to learn a lot about (an author’s interpretation of) life 400 years ago.  And a bit how the legal system worked, and so on.  But… before long, the book starts becoming repetitive.  I found little character development, only the main character has “a face” while the others remain flat.  I was in over 3/4 and decided to put it down for a while to get some “fresh air”.

And yet the end of the book surprises, describing the Frankfurter Buchmesse in the early 1600s. And a reckoning, as only wise old people can do it. As it says: Women are even numbers, and men are odd. Does that mean that Ptolemy created the mess we’re in.