In Massachusetts, in the years
between witchcraft delusion and Revolution,
a curious, intuitive Tamsin Bennett
comes of age apprenticed to her Grandmother Cat,
herbalist daughter of a healer-mystic
accused of witchery in 1692 Salem.
One morning in 1750, in the kitchen of a house on a coastal farm, Tamsin Bennett is stricken with a ghastly vision of her Papa. That day inexplicably he is found dead under the wheel of the tide mill. In peril, Tamsin must flee the farm, leave Grandmother Cat and the cousin she loves, and go with her mother to a place that may be safe – or not.
Now keeping an inn and tavern in a harbor town, Tamsin hides in plain sight to carry on the healing work of her foremothers. Trained in the ancient lineage of the Rowan women, she mixes extracts to put into the tavern’s ale, alters food with herbs, protects her family from threat, and chooses her lovers with particular care.
The Rowans is a historical novel woven with magical realism, inspired by a woman who began her own business in 1752, of necessity.
Rod Kessler, author of Off in Zimbabwe:
“Beverly Cooper Pierce brings a slice of history out of the shadows, vividly illuminating the day-to-day lives of women in the New England of the 1750s. For her heroine, growing into womanhood in a culture of religious intolerance and rigidity, it is a time of peril and tension given the special powers and gifts she possesses, inheritances from her forbears that must be kept secret.”
Lora DeVore, author of Darkness Was My Candle: An Odyssey of Survival and Grace
“The story of The Rowans, riveting, brought me to laughter, tears, and pure awe. At times, it’s as uplifting as it is heart-wrenching. The Rowans takes us on an epic adventure, so rich in detail we’re unlikely to put it down. Beverly Cooper Pierce immerses us in the language, landscape, foods, habits, and medicinal tinctures of the pre-Revolutionary period in this gem of a novel.”
