When Light Breaks Through takes us beyond the witch trials to tell a riveting, expansive story of what happened in Salem Village.
1692. In what begins as a daring adolescent game, twelve-year-old Ann Putnam becomes a ringleader of the “afflicted children” who accuse scores of people of witchcraft, resulting in twenty executions and untold misery for those imprisoned and their families in Massachusetts and Maine.
1697. Joseph Green, a young schoolteacher who is in love and eager to marry, takes on the Salem Village ministry that no one else wants and sets about mending the bitter discord that divides the congregation and the village. With his wife Elizabeth, he gradually earns the respect and trust of his congregation, eventually taking some dramatic actions that move the people to confront their future together as a community.
1706. With Joseph’s help, Ann delves into the darkness of her past, uncovering startling truths about her family and her childhood motivations. Standing before the neighbors whose loved ones she has sent to jail or to their deaths, she makes an appeal that could finally unite the people in forgiveness.
The compelling narrative takes us from the girlhood friendship of Ann and Abigail Williams, the other ringleader in the witch trials, to the intense, often shocking drama of the trials themselves, and to the small farming village on the edge of the frontier in 17th-century Massachusetts where Joseph Green pursues his quest to unite a bitterly divided people.
When Light Breaks Through is fact-based historical fiction. Its characters are based on real people. Its account of the witch trials and the public events surrounding them is grounded in public documents and historical research.
