REVIEW: The Dance Tree (Kiran Millwood Hargrave)

Book: The Dance Tree

Author: Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Premise: Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. Outside the city, pregnant Lisbet lives with her husband and mother-in-law, tending the bees that are the family's livelihood. Though Lisbet is removed from the frenzy of the dancing plague, her own quiet life is upended by the arrival of her sister-in-law. Nethe has been away for seven years, serving a penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name.

[⚠️TW: miscarriage, grief] 

This book is all about sisterhood and loss. Lisbet has endured dozens of pregnancies but has no living child. I felt Lisbet's loss and mourning, anxieties and fears. I loved the dance tree that she uses as a shrine to her lost children.

I loved the friendships between Lisbet, Ida and Nethe. All of them were being confined by men but the strong sisterhood between them kept them going. This theme continued through the dancing women and I loved the brief interludes that followed the women joining the dance.

There is a good deal of danger, with religious zealots perusing the women and threatening their lifestyles. While some of that is a tad slow, it picks up pace towards the second half of the book. 

A beautiful book.