The Daylight Gate, an instant bestseller in the UK, is award-winning
Jeanette Winterson's singular vision of a dark period of complicated
morality, sex, and tragic plays for power in a time when politics and
religion were closely intertwined.
After the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, every Catholic conspirator in England
fled to a wild, untamed place far from the reach of London law. On Good
Friday, 1612, deep in the woods of Pendle Hill, amid baptismal pools and
low, thick fog, a gathering of thirteen is interrupted by the local
magistrate. Two of their coven have already been imprisoned for
witchcraft and are awaiting trial, but those who remain are vouched for
by the wealthy and respected Alice Nutter.
Shrouded in mystery and gifted with eternally youthful beauty, Alice is
established in Lancashire society and insulated by her fortune. Yet she
is also plagued by rumors of a dark and torrid love affair with another
woman, the matriarch of the notorious Demdike clan. As those accused of
witchcraft retreat into darkness, Alice stands alone as a realm-crosser,
a conjurer of powers that will either destroy her or set her free.
