In early 18th century Oxfordshire, the village of Little Nettlebed faces a drought and the beaching of an enormous sturgeon. Five sisters defy local norms by trying to save the fish, leading to accusations of witchcraft. The villagers, led by the local ferryman Pete Darling, believe they have seen the sisters transform into dogs. The narrative delves into themes of femininity as perceived menace, exploring how women are often viewed as conduits of unnatural forces. The sisters exhibit aloofness and play cruel tricks on outsiders, complicating their identities together.
The bluntness of Purvis's title, which refers both to the girls transforming into dogs and to their neighbors taking up the hunt, is a hint: This is not a novel particularly interested in nuance.
Instead, this novel wants to directly engage the subtext of all witch stories, in which femininity itself is perceived as a menace, and to try to understand why women are often seen as natural conduits for unnatural forces.
The local ferryman, a perpetually inebriated and aggrieved man called Pete Darling, is convinced that he has seen them turn into dogs—and soon, almost everyone else in the drought-stricken village will come to believe him.
The suspected witches in question-those five sisters-stand accused of transgressing nature by transforming not the world around them but their own bodies.
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