⭐⭐⭐⭐ Laurie Lico Albanese’s Hester reimagines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, from the point of view of a woman who might have inspired Hester Prynne. Isobel Gamble is still a teenager when she emigrates from Scotland to Salem, Massachusetts, with her much older husband, Edward. She comes from a long line of women with secret knowledge—including her ancestor, Isobel Gowdie, Queen of Witches—and has learned to hide her synesthesia, a condition that makes her see letters and sounds in color. Albanese describes this brilliantly, weaving it into the story in ways that feel both magical and grounded. Told in a dual narrative between Isobel Gamble and Isobel Gowdie, the novel’s prose is […]