SILENCE

It Tracey’s historical novel, set in early-18th-century Massachusetts, a young Puritan widow named Silence Marsh is sentenced to a year of silence.

Silence was recently married to a good, loving man, Constable David Marsh, whose rank gave her the title of “Mistress,” rather than the more common “Goodwife,” and she has a kind and prosperous extended family. However, within a six-month span, her mother, her husband, and her infant daughter all die. At a Sabbath meeting, while listening to a typical Puritan fire-and-brimstone sermon, she loses her composure—screaming and cursing a seemingly capricious God who chose to punish her with such tragedy. For this sacrilege, she receives several punishments, with the final one being that she must not speak for a calendar year; to further atone, she voluntarily refuses even to write messages. From here on, the story focuses on Silence’s personal struggle with her conscience; however, she does still have friends, including a talented Boston apothecary, Mrs. Greenleaf, who looks after Silence’s failing health. So does the apothecary’s son, Daniel Greenleaf, who recently graduated from Harvard with a medical degree and does wonders for “Mistress Tacit,” as he teasingly calls Silence. Young Zuriel Hobart, who’s badly abused by her stepmother and desperate for a friend, becomes Silence’s protégé in the household arts. It all comes to a head when Zuriel accuses her truly wicked stepmother of witchcraft—a situation that drags Silence in and tests her mettle. Readers will be likely be shaken and enraged by the final scenes. Tracey, the author of The Bereaved (2023), is a remarkable writer, and this book is another triumph. The character of Silence is a wonderful creation who endures a life suffering, doubt, and blazing anger, and readers will be invested in her fate. The archaic language and fine detail relate what it was like to live in a typical household of the time, all the household practices of everyday life, and how, for example, to prepare for long winters: “Withal, the apples have been cut and dried, the apple-butter crocked, the cider pressed. Crane-berries and wild grape are gathered and dried.” 

A historically astute and compelling must-read.