The Tattooed Girl

Excerpt

You could see her summoning her courage to ask this older man a question, as a nervous schoolgirl might ask her teacher a question; not the brightest student, but one who rarely spoke. She stammered slightly, mispronouncing the words. Telling Seigl that she had been looking through some of these books—especially "Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live": A History of European Witchcraft—and she wondered, were these things real? Had there been witches? Or was it all made up, like in a movie? Eagerly she leafed through the book to point out to Seigl pages of illustrations, drawings and woodcuts of grotesque female witch-figures, ugly scenes of torture, sacrifice, immolation. . . . "Witches aren't real, I guess?" Alma asked wistfully. Seigl said, "Witches were believed to be 'real' at one time in history, and they suffered for it." Alma said, "Because a witch can't win? God hates witches?" Seigl said, "No, God neither loves nor hates witches. God isn't a factor here. Only humankind. For the witch-hunters, 'witches' were heretics who had to be punished because they undermined the authority of the Roman Catholic Church; some of those persecuted as witches are believed to have been Cathars, a dissident Catholic sect. For those who imagined themselves witches, and there may have been significant numbers of these, 'witchcraft' was a collective delusion. A way of compensating economic, political, social powerlessness on the part of most women and some men." Seigl stopped short, embarrassed at seeming to lecture. Of all things, he didn't want to bore this girl who stood so ardently before him.

But—were there witches? I don't understand."

"No, and yes. There were no witches. There is no Devil, and there is no empowerment from the Devil. But there were those who were perceived to be witches, and those who so perceived themselves."

"But they were killed anyway, I guess? The witches?"

"Yes. For centuries. 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.'"

Other Editions

Reviews

• Booklist, March 1, 2003, p. 1108
• Library Journal, April 15, 2003, p. 126
• Publishers Weekly, April 21, 2003, pp. 36-37
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 8, 2003, p. B4
• Baltimore Sun, June 9, 2003
• Rocky Mountain News, June 13, 2003
• New York Daily News, June 15, 2003, Showtime: p. 17
• Jerusalem Post, June 20, 2003, p. 12B
• Jewish Week, June 20, 2003
• Boston Herald, June 22, 2003, p. 54
• Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 22, 2003, p. 11
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 22, 2003, p. 14E
• Portland Oregonian, June 22, 2003, p. E7
• The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), June 22. 2003, Perspective, p. 4
• Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), June 22, 2003, p. 14F
• Sunday Oregonian, June 22, 2003, p. E7
• The Record (Bergen County, NJ), June 29, 2003, p. E3
• Detroit Free Press, June 29, 2003
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 29, 2003, p. F10
• Buffalo News, July 6, 2003, p. H4
• San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, July 6, 2003
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 13, 2003, p. F3
• Denver Post, July 13, 2003, p. EE2
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 13, 2003
• New York Times Book Review, July 13, 2003, p. 15
• Seattle Times, July 13, 2003
• Providence Journal-Bulletin (Rhode Island), July 20, 2003, p. J5
• Boston Globe, July 24, 2003, p. C12
• Virginian-Pilot, July 27, 2003, p. E3
• Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia), August 3, 2003, p. E4
• Associated Press, August 11, 2003
• Washington Post Book World, August 17, 2003, p. 9
• Times Union (Albany, NY), August 17, 2003, p. J4
• New York Times, August 29, 2003
• The Observer, January 4, 2004, Review, p. 15
• Time Out, January 7, 2004, p. 64
• Daily Telegraph (London), January 17, 2004, Books, p. 8
• Sunday Telegraph (London), January 18, 2004, Review, p. 12
• New Statesman, January 19, 2004
• The Guardian (London), January 24, 2004, p. 28
• The Weekend Australian, February 7, 2004, p. B8
• New Zealand Herald, March 12, 2004

Notes

Working Titles: "The Beneficiary," "The Shadows"

The novel was written simultaneously as a play, and first performed in 2005.