Brunonia Barry’s novel reveals the magic of Salem

It’s difficult not to get tangled up in “The Lace Reader” for days as the story unravels.

Released this week, the debut novel by Brunonia Barry is set in her hometown of Salem, Mass., where she still lives. Barry went to the University of New Hampshire and worked in various cities as far away as California before moving back to Salem, just like the main character in the book, Towner Whitney. She said she saw Salem differently after being away. “You take it for granted when you live here, but it’s so unusual,” she said. “I think (the city) is really a character in the book.”
Because witchcraft has become such a dominant part of Salem’s character, it has found its way into other parts of local history, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s legacy, the shipping industry and other industrious accomplishments. The city is now a tourist attraction with witchcraft as the economic base. “You walk around and you see it everywhere. Magic clings to magic,” Barry said. “All the lore kind of groups together in ways that it never did.”

Barry will be in Portsmouth at RiverRun Bookstore on Tuesday, Aug. 5, to read from “The Lace Reader.”

In the novel, Barry touches on the non-fictional history of Salem and its witch trials. “Around every corner of Salem lurks a history lesson,” she writes. She says the town has embraced witches, who never actually existed in the days of the witch trials but do now as a result of them. Some of the female characters are lace makers, based on the real women who ran the industry that created Ipswich lace. But the characters can also read the lace like fortune tellers. This layer, which is what makes the novel so magical, came to Barry in a dream. “The most magical thing I’ve ever believed in is what happened with the book,” said Barry, who has already been contracted to write a second one.

But Barry also believes in women’s intuition, saying it’s a natural faculty that seems to be underdeveloped. In fact, she said, her mother knew the book would be successful and told her to continue writing it. The notion that the female characters can read lace to see the future or read minds without lace is easy enough to believe as an extension of intuition, especially when set in Salem. Most of the women don’t consider themselves witches or wouldn’t consider practicing witchcraft with evil intent.      

The novel is a variation on the classic hero’s journey. Barry said she wanted to see what would happen if a woman was allowed to be the hero, and it turns out it’s more of a collaborative undertaking. Towner Whitney begins the novel isolated by her own choice, but needs the help of others and learns how to be with other people again. The hero and all the other characters are imperfect, and there are dualities throughout the novel—the woman who takes in abused women is a recluse, and the man who some view as a savior of possessed youths is a child molester.

“I wanted to write a book about everything and it’s opposite,” said Barry. “It’s also a lot about perception. How you read it determines what you expect to see.” That concept is also part of the book in that how one reads lace can alter the outcome, and lace reading itself is presented as both a gift and a burden.

Towner Whitney, who narrates the story when it is not in third person, begins by telling the reader not to trust her because she is a liar. Reading on reveals why she doesn’t even trust herself. “I think you’re just supposed to experience the book as she did,” Barry said.

After discovering that her great aunt is missing, Towner returns to Salem for the first time since her twin sister took her own life. She had spent a significant portion of her youth with this aunt, since her mother refuses to leave the nearby island that is her home. Once back in Salem, Towner is flooded by memories of her young sister and must make her way through these murky waters to come to terms with her past. When another person goes missing, the notion that Salem’s witch hunting history could repeat itself haunts many minds.

The writing is filled with an urgency that makes it difficult to stop reading, and yet there are slower moments when the characters develop and the setting takes shape. The story unfolds with suspense and mystery to pull the reader along while becoming attached to the people and places. There’s also a sense of magic that makes the writing memorable, like phosphorescent trails through water at night.  

Barry had been ghost writing before deciding to dedicate her time to her own stories. “If you don’t write all the time, you lose the threads of the story, literally, in this case, the threads of the lace,” she said. She expects her next novel to also be set in the Salem area but to include New Hampshire, as well.

Brunonia Barry reads from “The Lace Reader” at RiverRun Bookstore, 20 Congress St., Portsmouth, on Tuesday, Aug. 5 at 7 p.m. The hardcover book is available for $24.95.