A Measure of Light: A Novel [Hardcover] Powning, Beth

Product Description With Beth Powning’s trademark elegance and insight into the hearts and minds of unforgettable women, A Measure of Light brings to life an extraordinary historical figure. Mary Dyer is a seventeenth-century Puritan who flees persecution in England, only to find the colony of Massachusetts Bay as dangerous as the country she left behind. Though she is the wife of a successful merchant and mother to their children, she becomes stigmatized following a birth gone terribly wrong and is reviled as a friend to the infamous heretic Anne Hutchinson. Mary tries to accept New England’s harsh realities, but is outraged by the cold-hearted Puritan magistrates, with their doctrinaire stranglehold on church and state, their subjugation of women, their wars against the natives in the surrounding territories and their vicious treatment of any who challenge their rule. Mary becomes one of America’s first Quakers. As both outcast and privileged citizen, caught between the callings of faith and the ambitions of her husband, she comes to the realization that she must follow her convictions in order to bring an end to the brutal repression of the Quakers in Massachusetts, for whom death by hanging is the ultimate punishment. From Mary’s relationship with Anne Hutchinson to her fiery exchanges with the colonial magistrates, A Measure of Light is both a sensitive work of imagination and meticulously true to the historical record. In this exceptional pairing of author and subject, Mary Dyer receives in the hands of Beth Powning— herself a New England–born Quaker—the full-blooded recognition too long denied a woman of her moral stature and significance in shaping American history. Review Longlisted for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award WINNER of the 2016 Atlantic Book Awards’ New Brunswick Book Award for Fiction “[A] compelling, gorgeously written novel. . . . Fans of Powning know she is excellent at describing nature as part of the rhythm of daily life.” —Elissa Barnard, The Chronicle Herald “Beth Powning is one of Canada’s literary gems and A Measure of Light is a truly stunning novel, brilliantly evoking seventeenth century England and America. A sweeping novel that moves back and forth across the Atlantic, it also uncovers the rigidity of those who thought they had brought religious freedom to the New World only to be caught up by their own beliefs. This is indeed a novel that deserves a place on your bookshelf. And if you haven’t read them, buy or borrow Powning’s other novels. They are equally enchanting.” —Andrew Armitage, The Sun Times (Owen Sound) “It’s a page-turner with a growing sense of foreboding as Powning depicts how ambition and power corrupt human beings. . . .It’s chilling to read about the pain and sacrifice endured by Mary and other free-thinking women in such a deeply misogynistic culture. . . . [Powning] describes Mary’s life with beautiful subtlety, never using a broadaxe to draw comparisons with the mores of modern times. Instead she uses subtlety and grim humour.” —Linda Diebel, Toronto Star “Beth Powning is known for her lyrical, powerful writing and the profound emotional honesty of her work. . . . This gripping historical fiction captures the spirit of a truly courageous woman struggling for women’s rights, liberty of conscience, intellectual freedom and justice.” —UNB Newsroom “In Beth Powning’s latest novel, faith collides with religious intolerance, and luscious writing acts as a counterpoint to an often stark story. . . . Remarkable book. A Measure of Light is a true story that Powning has transformed into a work of art. . . . Powning created Mary’s early years, added characters, fictionalized dialogue and cast the entire story in a frame of writing so rich in description that is almost verges on becoming voluptuous at times. . . . Powning offsets the austere existence of the Puritans and Quakers with warm, evocative writing. She has a gift for producing . . . wonderful images. .