Hour of the Witch

by Chris Bohjalian

“She was sent to the scaffold because she had a sharper tongue and a shrewder mind than her accusers. It is always the case when men hang women. Look at Magistrate Caleb Adams: there is nothing that frightens that man more than a woman who does not live happily under a man’s thumb.”

Caleb Adams was inspired in part by Cotton Mather. But I was writing a lot of this novel during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings, and all of the men who denigrated or didn't take Christine Blasey Ford seriously were also an influence on this character’s behavior. And, yes, when Caleb calls Mary Deerfield "a nasty woman," I knew the insult would have echoes in our recent political -- and I use this word sarcastically -- discourse.