It takes an age, but Lisbet is revived from her sleep, and she works as though she had practised for just this moment her whole life, a life that until now had been full of ruin and curses and blood and now is nothing but music and beauty and bees, her mother-in-law processing before her, anointing her path with smoke. She feels some of the power a priest must, giving each animal their place, clearing them of their panic, their confusion. Giving them peace. The unhomed bees gust and plume, making a column above the destroyed hives.’

Then an evil wizard came along and, envious of the joy I got from these books, cast a spell upon me. Set in Strasbourg, in 1518, the fiction is inspired by a dancing plague which historical accounts suggest sent the city into a mania for three months of relentless dancing in the streets. The novel focuses on the pregnant Lisbeth, and the women closest to her, as the repercussions of this frenzy impact upon them in myriad ways as they are pushed to the limits of endurance. Kiran Millwood Hargrave is a poet as well as a novelist (and playwright). She is perhaps best known for her children’s books. Her book The Mercies, which I have not read, seems to take a similar line to this new book: both are based on historical events and tell the stories of strong women battling against the patriarchal and superstitious culture of medieval Europe. This book is interspersed with short chapters that describe several different women as they join the dancing, and we are left to imagine for ourselves what it is that drives them to that (the author gives her theory in her note at the end). As the story unravels, I kept waiting to connect with the main character, but I couldn’t. There wasn’t enough of character development to help me connect with Lisbet. When I started losing interest in the story, I realized that the plot was weak as well. It seems as it’s more about some embellishments. The story keeps spinning, but I was missing character development and some strong thread to connect all those beautiful embellishments. Not only was I intrigued by the absolutely stunning book cover, I also adore historical fiction therefore I was incredibly excited when I received a copy of The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.Thanks to NetGalley, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, and HarperVia for this ARC. The Dance Tree will be out in the US on March 14th, 2023 ** Meanwhile, on a farm near the city, pregnant Lisbet, together with husband Henne and mother-in-law Sophey, is tending the bees that provide her family's livelihood whilst at the same time longing for this pregnancy to go full-term and not end prematurely as her previous twelve pregnancies have. Then Lisbet's life is disrupted by the arrival of Henne's sister, Nethe, who has been away in a mountain retreat for seven years for a 'crime' that no-one will speak of. As the family dynamic ebbs and flows, Lisbet finds herself increasingly drawn to her best friend, Ida, who has the misfortune to be married to a vindictive member of the local Council and who believes he is doing God's work, no matter how harsh his actions are. But Ida has a secret that even best friend Lisbet does not know - and, when revealed, puts Lisbet's family in jeopardy.... The character of Lizbet was thoughtfully drawn as a capable woman who was weighed down with the grief of multiple miscarriages and doubting her place in her home because of it. Her position is also threatened by the return of her mysterious sister-in-law who has returned home after being away, doing "penance" for something no one will talk about. Her husband had to travel to the council seat to try to save their bee-keeping business, which is the one joy and pride she has in her life. On a visit to the village, she sees a woman who is in a dancing-type trance which has captivated the village and is growing with more women joining in, to the consternation of the town and leaders. This was absolutely beautifully written. It often felt like a dreamscape, where the writing created far more ambiance than detail. These two historical events underpin Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s book, especially the dancing plague in Strasbourg. The meteorite is relevant because our protagonist, Lisbet, was born as it crashed into a field and the mark it left on that field left its own mark on her family.

Agnethe’s return coincides with the church making an unreasonable demand on the farm. And it is these two events that trigger and drive the story we read. As with her debut adult novel, The Mercies, the author has taken an intriguing but little-known event from history and crafted a wonderful novel around it...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. This was no ordinary dance – it was unrelenting, closer to a trance than a celebration. She danced for days, any attempts to make her rest thwarted, until it drew the attention of the Twenty-One, the city’s council, and she was taken to the shrine of St Vitus, patron saint of dancers and musicians. After being bathed in the spring there, she stopped dancing.’ With much sadness I must say that sometimes I was terribly bored. What I think is that it just wasn't a book for me. I found my patience for sentimental historical fiction, even the kind that is well-written and not cheesy WWII romance crap, had disappeared. The plot: Set in France, 1558, this novel follows Lizbet, a pregnant beekeeper who has already suffered 12 miscarriages. Her life has been marked by tragedy and the city she lives in, Strasbourg, is beset by starvation and misfortune. One summer day, a woman begins to dance. She is soon joined by hundreds of others, dancing in ecstasy and pain to the point of death. While this city-wide drama unfolds, so too does the drama of Lizbet's life, as she is forced to question everything she has ever thought about sin and love. The Times Exceptionally brilliant. Immersive, sensual, compelling and totally convincing. Accessible, ambitious, The Dance Tree deserves to win prizes

Set in an era of superstition and hysteria, and inspired by the true events of a doomed summer, The Dance Tree is a story of family secrets, forbidden love, and women pushed to the edge. The gripping, historical novel from Kiran Millwood Hargrave, as seen on BBC Two's Between the Covers. Nor is there any superfluous scene in ‘The Dancing Tree’; midway, I feared there just wasn’t going to be enough of this gorgeous book to enjoy. The timing is delicately paced and very well pitched, as Lisbet, and the women who surround her, move through revelations of who they truly are, and metamorphose into new-found selves; with character arc illustrated symbolically throughout by what happens to Lisbet’s bees:

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At the center of of the novel is Lisbet, a beekeeper who loves her bees, and has struggled with recurrent miscarriage. She has lost 12 babies. She has a tree in the woods, (a dance tree) where she has installed a private sanctuary, where she has ribbons to honor the past babies lost.