JULIA PARK TRACEY at Books Inc. Alameda

Books Inc. Alameda is thrilled to present Julia Park-Tracey reading and signing copies of her new novel: Silence!

After three grievous losses, Puritan woman Silence Marsh dares to question God aloud in the church, and that blasphemy lands her in trouble—she is silenced for a year by the powers that govern. Broken in heart and spirit, Silence learns to mime and sign, but it isn’t until a new Boston doctor comes to her backward Cape Cod village that she begins to hope again. Rather than treating Silence with bleeding or leeches, Dr. Greenleaf prescribes fresh air, St. John’s Wort, long walks—and reading.

Silence has half a hope of getting through her year of punishment when the cry of witchcraft poisons the village. Colonial Massachusetts is still reeling from the Salem Witch Trials just 20 years before. Now, after they demanded her silence, she is called to witness at a witchcraft trial—or be accused herself.

A whiff of sulfur and witchcraft shadows this literary Puritan tale of loss and redemption, based on this bestselling historical fiction author’s own ancestor, her seventh great-grandmother.

Julia Park Tracey is an award-winning journalist, editor, poet laureate, and author of several books. Inspired by a mysterious train receipt in her family’s scrapbook, she researched her Orphan Train roots and wrote The Bereaved about her found relatives. She has ancestors—or should we say an-sisters? In digging through her family history, she has uncovered a trove of powerful women who break rules and stand tall against whatever dares to oppose them. One such heroine is the Puritan woman named Silence Greenleaf. Julia lives in the low Sierra of California in a carefully restored 1880 Victorian, with her family and beloved cats, bees, and chickens

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