Isobel Gamble是一位年轻的女裁缝，在19世纪初与她的丈夫Edward从苏格兰启程时，她带着几代人的秘密。爱德华是一个被鸦片迷惑的药剂师，他的一堆债务迫使他们逃离爱丁堡，到新世界重新开始。但就在他们到达塞勒姆的几天后，爱德华突然作为一名医生加入了一艘即将离开的船–留下伊索贝尔身无分文，独自一人在一个陌生的国家，被迫用任何可能的方式来谋生。
当她遇到年轻的纳撒尼尔-霍桑时，两人立刻被对方吸引住了：他是一个被他的祖先困扰的人，他把无辜的妇女送上了绞刑架，而她是一个异常有天赋的针线活者，被自己的奇怪天赋所困扰。随着时间的推移，爱德华安全返回的可能性越来越小，纳撒尼尔和伊索贝尔变得越来越亲密。他们在一起，既是缪斯女神，又是黑暗的说书人；既是魔法师，又是被施了魔法的人。但哪个是哪个？
在这个感性和催眠的故事中，一位年轻的移民妇女努力应对我们国家复杂的过去，并了解到美国的自由理念和自由往往达不到其承诺。与伊索贝尔和纳撒尼尔的故事交织在一起的是对19世纪上半叶谁能成为一个 “真正的 “美国人的生动拷问，对新英格兰地下铁路早期的描述，以及捕捉 “不寻常 “的妇女被指控为巫师的悠久历史的大气的插叙。海丝特是一个关于艺术、野心和欲望的永恒的故事，它审视了女性创造能力的根源和试图关闭它的男人。
Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they’ve arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic––leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible.
When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows––while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward’s safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which?
In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country’s complicated past, and learns that America’s ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel’s story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a “real” American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of “unusual” women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down.
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