The Age of Witches

Once, when the air was so imbued with magic it left an ash taste on the tongue, witches were fierce and fearless.

That time is no more. Men built pyres, and women learned to be silent, to hide what magic they had left in rhymes, cheap spells, and tales.

In 1893, in the town of New Salem, the three Eastwood sisters accidentally find themselves in the Suffragette movement.

Agnes, the eldest, is a factory worker under a tyrannical foreman; Bella has become a respectable librarian; and Juniper, the youngest, is wanted for the murder of her father, with whom she lived alone for seven years after her sisters left.

Despite past conflicts that divide them, they will discover gifts that only ask to be revealed by uniting and believing. For if, for now, magic is so weak, the exhumation of this ancient knowledge could well change everything.

Alix E. Harrow confirms she is one of the major voices in current fantasy. Bifrost.

BRITISH BEST FANTASY AWARD 2021

📖 Review from the Old Grimoire Bookstore

By our editorial & librarian committee

Alix E. Harrow's The Once and Future Witches is a masterful feminist fantasy novel that intertwines the history of the Suffragettes, a coming-of-age story, and the reappropriation of ancestral magic. Winner of the British Best Fantasy Award 2021, this text confirms the author as one of the major voices in contemporary fantasy.

The strength of this novel lies in its ability to weave together several narrative threads: the story of the three Eastwood sisters, the fight for women's suffrage in 1893, and the quest to unearth ancient witchcraft knowledge. Harrow poses a fundamental question: what if women's magic had been deliberately stifled, reduced to nursery rhymes and tales to better make it disappear?

The opening image — "when the air was so imbued with magic it left an ash taste on the tongue" — sets the tone for poetic and incisive prose. The three sisters, each with her wounds and gifts, embody different facets of femininity and resistance. Their reunion and discovery of the power of sisterly unity resonate deeply with contemporary quests for the reappropriation of the sacred feminine.

We recommend this novel to fans of feminist fantasy, readers sensitive to the history of women and witchcraft, and all those who believe in the power of unity and the reappropriation of ancient knowledge. An essential and inspiring text.

Our rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — A masterful feminist fantasy novel that celebrates sisterhood and the reappropriation of ancestral magic.