The Daylight Gate — Jeanette Winterson

The Daylight Gate is best-selling writer Jeanette Winterson's vision of a dark period of complicated morality, sex, and tragic plays for power in a time when politics and religion were closely intertwined. After the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, every Catholic conspirator in England fled to a wild, untamed place far from the reach of London law...

Good Friday, 1612. Deep in the woods of Pendle Hill, amidst mossy baptismal pools and low, thick fog, a gathering of thirteen is interrupted by local magistrate Roger Nowell. Two of their coven are already imprisoned for witchcraft and awaiting trial, but those that remain are vouched for by the wealthy and respected Alice Nutter.

Shrouded in mystery and gifted with eternally youthful beauty, Alice is established in Lancashire society and insulated by her fortune. But she is also plagued by questionable allegiances and rumors of a lethally torrid love affair with another woman, the matriarch of the notorious Demdike clan. As the persecuted retreat into darkness and throw their hopes behind the promise of a vengeful magic, Alice stands alone as a realm-crosser, a conjurer of powers that will either destroy her or set her free.

This is the reign of the brutal Protestant king, James I. This is Lancashire. This is Pendle. This is witch country.