From the author of Indie Next Pick and New York Times Editors' Choice Goodnight, Beautiful Women comes a transportive and chilling debut novel of two sisters growing up on an isolated Northern European island in the shadow of their late mother and the Devil It’s 1825, four generations after Berggrund Island’s women stood accused of witchcraft under the eye of their priest, now long dead. In his place is Pastor Silas, a widower with two wild young daughters, Beata and Ulrika. The sisters are outcasts: imaginative, oppositional, increasingly obsessed with the lore and legend of the island’s dark past and their absent mother, whom their father refuses to speak of. As the girls come of age, and the strictures of the community shift but never wane, their rebellions twist and sharpen. Ever capable Ulrika shoulders the burden of keeping house, while Bea, alone with unsettling visions and impulses, hungers for companionship and attention. When an enigmatic outsider arrives at their door, his presence threatens their family bond and unearths – piece by piece – a buried history to shocking ends. All the while Berggrund’s neighboring island The Blue Maiden beckons, storied home of the Witches’ Sabbath and Satan’s realm, its misted shore veiling truths the sisters have spent their lives searching for. A Nordic Gothic laced with the horrors of life in a patriarchy both hostile to and reliant on its women, The Blue Maiden is a starkly beautiful depiction of lost lineage and resilience. Praise for The Blue Maiden A New York Times Editors' Choice Longlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award 2024 INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist 2024 Big Other Book Award in Fiction Finalist Ippy Awards Bronze Medalist for Literary Fiction “The island of Berggrund is only an hour’s sail from the mainland, but in 1825 its superstitious inhabitants are as detached from the larger currents of Swedish life as they were 150 years earlier, when the community’s priest ordered most of its women put to death for witchcraft. Anna Noyes’s haunting first novel, The Blue Maiden , explores the sinister effects of this legacy on the two daughters of Silas, the island’s current pastor, a descendant of one of the few women to be spared.” —  Alida Becker, New York Times “What I expected to find upon opening Anna Noyes’ debut novel, The Blue Maiden , was a story of sisters, a story of myths and traditions, a story brimming with nature and mystery. While all this is here within the pages, I found so much more brewing beneath the surface: how we understand one another, what we know to be true versus what we wish to be true, and, perhaps most importantly, what it means to be a woman who has been told what to believe her whole life . . . Within the walls of witchcraft, piety, and the determination to not forget the past, The Blue Maiden takes us to a haunting and hypnotizing island and dares us to explore."—  Madeline Schultz, Chicago Review of Books “ The Blue Maiden pulses with earthy magic . . . Sifting through centuries of island life to reveal a splendid array of women’s heirlooms—tactile and otherwise—[it] is a bewitching novel.” —  Foreword Reviews , starred “Bracing . . . Noyes shows with incisive and imagistic prose how the specter of the eerie, ever-changing Blue Maiden hangs over the residents of Berggrund like a pall as the sisters come of age to face horrifying tragedies. Noyes evokes Shirley Jackson in this inspired and memorable gothic tale.” — Publishers Weekly , starred review “This debut novel churns with the smell of sea-damp wool, day-old bread, and elderflower-scented smoke . . . Noyes’ rich descriptions create a setting that, in all its consuming bleakness, is perfect for a story about the burdens of generational and gendered trauma . . . A twisting narrative of the horrors of patriarchal subordination that will appeal to fans of classic gothic novels.” —  Kirkus Reviews “Backdropped by the aura and lore of the island, Noyes’ captivating debut novel is a vivid journey into womanhood, self-discovery, and the bonds of family." — Booklist “Through mysterious and musical prose, Noyes ( Goodnight, Beautiful Women ) delves into the folklore, paternalism, and superstition that keep women in their place, tied to the unforgiving religious beliefs of the time . . . A captivating Nordic gothic about a search for self.” — Library Journal “Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Other times, fiction can outrun truth, but when the two blend, as in The Blue Maiden from Anna Noyes, the impact can be doubly resonant . . . Noyes’s prose is lyrical, spare, carefully capturing the space between image and intention . . . The combination of what happened all those years ago, blended with what Noyes imagines, is bewitching.” —  Petoskey News-Review “Captivating . . . A (literally) spellbinding Gothic tale of generational trauma with a feminist resonance that will delight readers of Shirley Jackson and Nordic historical