From its breezy title, you might not expect Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch to be an occasionally true story* that takes place in Württemberg Germany in 1618. Katherina Kepler, whose son Johannes (Hans) discovered the laws of planetary motion, is accused by her neighbors of being a witch. Once she is accused, everyone in town starts attributing their misfortunes to Katherine. Can her children and her kindly neighbor use reason to challenge the superstitions of the time?
The story shows how Katherine's neighbors come around to believing her intentions are evil and how society encourages her persecution. At one point, both her family and her primary accuser complain to the duke that the expense of her incarceration is draining her estate; the accuser is unhappy because Katherine's assets are supposed to come to her in compensation.
The book ends with a touching scene between Katherine and her neighbor Simon who comes to apologize for not defending her vociferously enough. Katherine doesn't forgive him so much as refuse to judge him.
I'm find of you, Simon. I can see that you want me to be angry with you but I can't do it. You have love in your heart. You've been a friend to me. I don't know what difference your words would have made. I wonder if it's worth two old people spending time reassuring each other of this or that.
Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch is quite different in style from Galchen's previous novel Atmospheric Disturbances. The earlier book deals with the operations of the human mind whereas this one is about the operations of society. In a blind test, I would never guess they were from the same author.
Spoiler alert! Highlight the next few lines of text to learn Katherine's fate.
Katherine is acquitted but forced to leave her home town, fated to serve as a "tale to frighten children until the end of days."
* To borrow a phrase from "The Great".
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