Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

The plague is spreading. The hundred-year war is beginning. Katharina Kepler is believed to be a witch.

Known for her herbal remedies and successful children – among them Johannes, Imperial Mathematician and author of the laws of planetary motion – Katharina’s life is changed by an accusation of witchcraft. Facing financial ruin, torture and even execution, she tells her side of the story.

Witty, engaging and vividly imagined, Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch draws on historical documents to illuminate a society undone by collective aggression and hysterical fear – a narrative with true resonance for today.

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Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch is a novel that I picked up on a whim.  I’m not entirely sure that I like the cover, although I came to appreciate its significance upon reading it, but it’s one that caught my eye.  And this is very much my kind of novel, featuring an accusation of witchcraft against a proud and independent woman (aren’t they all?) who does her best to defend herself against the baseless allegations.  That it’s based upon true events makes it all the more poignant, and I found it surprising that the mother of Johannes Kepler – German mathematician and astronomer and one of the influences on the work of Isaac Newton – was subjected to such an ordeal. Although given the clash between faith and science at the time, perhaps it’s not that surprising at all.  Galchen has drawn upon the historical record, filling in the gaps where necessary, yet remaining true to the time, exploring Katharina’s situation and how such an accusation might impact someone’s life, and the lives of those around them.

From the beginning, Katharina is a wonderfully sympathetic character.  An older woman with little formal education, she comes across as intelligent and knowledgeable in her way.  She is, however, brash and outspoken, something that comes to the fore as the novel progresses, making things worse even as she tries to defend herself against these accusations.  And of course, she has some skill in herbal remedies which is how it all begins when she is accused of giving poisoned wine to a neighbour.  Katharina is a character who is not without her flaws, and yet doesn’t deserve this experience, particularly as events escalate beyond her control.  She is the archetypal victim for such accusations – an independent woman who refuses to behave as others expect, unintentionally drawing their ire.

Do you understand that any false testimony you knowingly give will provoke God’s great anger in your earthly life and will deliver your soul unto Satan upon your death?

Each of the witness testimonies begins with this question – a direct translation from the trial records.  Despite the fear that this must have instilled at the time, the claims made against Katharina vary from the coincidental (she looked at my pig and my pig got sick) to the downright absurd, and it’s both stunning and terrifying to see how the accusations snowball as all and sundry jump on the bandwagon with some tale to tell about Katharina and her supposedly odd and witchy behaviour.  Their motives never really become apparent, adding to the absurdity of the situation.  Some seem to envy her children who have done well for themselves and rising above their station, Johannes in particular.  Others are financially motivated, demanding compensation for the damage Katharina is supposedly the author of, while others have taken offense at some slight, real or imagined, and use this as an opportunity for payback.  A few individuals stand by her, but they are few and far between.  

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch is made up of a series of documents with Katharina’s own testimony forming the bulk of the novel, interspersed with those witness testimonies, letters, and other accounts.  I love novels that are epistolary in format, and it works brilliantly here, allowing Katharina to share her own account of these events and life in general, while also showing how the initial allegation – which Katharina doesn’t take seriously – escalates into something horrific, momentous, and unstoppable.  Katharina herself isn’t able to read or write, which I felt added sympathy to her plight, and her testimony is taken down by her neighbour and legal-guardian, Simon – a fictionalised being for this novel, although she did in fact have a legal guardian who captured her side of the story. 

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch is a quirky novel providing a fictional account of real events that doesn’t seem all that farfetched.  I was glad that it kept the focus on Katharina when I’m sure it would have been very easy to look towards the more famous son – he is present and defends his mother, despite the potential ramifications, but plays a minor role in the narrative.  The tone is quite matter of fact, something which matches Katharina’s attitude, and almost deadpan in its portrayal of the often ludicrous claims made against Katharina.  And while it’s set in the early seventeenth century, it’s a novel that is relevant today.   I couldn’t help but find parallels to the pile-ons that can occur on social media in Katharina’s situation.  Recommended.