Originally published Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 12:00 AM
PrintBook review
"The Last Witch of Langenburg:" a true story, stranger than fiction
Thomas Robisheaux's chilling book "The Last Witch of Langenburg" is the true story of a 17th-century witch hunt in a German village.
"The Last Witch of Langenburg: Murder in a German Village"
by Thomas Robisheaux
W.W. Norton, 382 pp., $26.95
Science has never quite banished superstition, which bubbles up from our great dramatic subconscious in horror movies and racial profiling. Thomas Robisheaux gives us the story of one of the last witch hunts in Europe.
In 1672, in a German village, a young woman who had just given birth to her second child died after eating a Shrovetide cake made by her neighbor. Stories of witches poisoning innocents were common in the Franconia region.
The neighbor was arrested, and the entire family charged with witchcraft. You can't beat a witch hunt for drama. Every childhood nightmare is called to mind — the dark forest on the edge of town, the inaccessibility of God and, worse, our own friends and family. Forget memoir; this is nonfiction.
Reviewed by Susan Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
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