The Dance Tree: A BBC Between the Covers book club pick

Reviews

Smeets

In July 1518, in the midst of the hottest summer Central Europe had ever known, a woman whose name is recorded as Frau Troffea began to dance in the streets of Strasbourg. Thank you Pan Macmillan for my ebook via Netgalley - I have received my beautiful edition now too! For fans of historical fiction, feminist novels, beautiful fiction, everyone should read this novel. This element of the story is heartbreaking and would be triggering for some.

Set in 1518 Strasbourg, an area of France that because of it's disputed history was under German rule at this time. This was unrelenting, scooping up many others and was considered religious mania for good or evil. The tree is used to symbolise her losses, each baby celebrated and recognised with their ribbons. These four women in the novel are swept up in this but they are finding their own ways to resist men's attempts to suppress, confine or crush their spirits, as the Twenty One are seeking to nullify the dancing women.

Millwood Hargrave handles this beautifully though, and I felt every ounce of Lisbet's pain. It tells the story of Lisbet and her bees, heavily pregnant with her baby, her husband's 'boy' despite their losses that have come before. This was my first novel by Millwood Hargrave and it won't be my last.