The last book of 2021! I was pleasantly surprised by Rivka Galchen’s Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch, so I am glad to finish up the year with a good book. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is based on the real-life Katharina Kepler, mother of famed Imperial Mathematician Johannes Kepler, who was accused of being a witch in early 17th century Germany.

Katharina is in her seventies and a widow with three grown children. She is not rich, but she is not poor either. She owns her own home in the small town of Leonberg and some land that generates enough income for her to live comfortably. She is known in town for her herbal remedies, and also for getting into everyone’s business.

One day a woman named Ursula accuses Katharina of offering Ursula a drink that made her ill. Then suddenly it seems like everyone in Leonberg has an accusation of witchcraft against Katharina. The novel is told through Katharina’s perspective as she relates the events to her legal guardian, Simon, to record for her (since she is illiterate), as well as through Simon’s perspective and through the court testimonies of Katharina’s accusers and few defenders. After four years, Katharina ends up in prison and threatened with torture in order to get a confession out of her. Her house and land are sold to pay the expenses to jail her.

The point of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is not whether Katharina really is a witch. Katharina’s experience reflects the way society treats women. Katharina is an intelligent woman and an engaging narrator who keeps up her sense of humour despite the dangerous situation that she is in. Do people really believe she is a witch? No, it is not likely that they do, except for maybe the superstitious people who get caught up in the hysteria. Ursula and her other accusers are out to get Katharina because they do not like her. Katharina gives her opinion too freely for a woman. People think she meddles too much in their lives, even if her intentions are good. All her children have done well for themselves, which makes people jealous. It appears Ursula has accused Katharina of witchcraft so that she will be executed, and Ursula and her husband will get monetary compensation from her estate.

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is also about how men have failed women, as evidenced by Simon. Simon has great sympathy for Katharina’s situation, and he seems to have great sympathy for women in general. He wonders why women would ever bother to marry after witnessing his daughter’s misery during her courtship and hearing about how other men treat their wives. But he is a reluctant legal guardian to Katharina, and he never actually defends Katharina to the people of Leonberg.

You can easily Google Katharina Kepler and find out the outcome of her witch trial. It was not what I was expecting. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch does have a sad ending, but I am still glad that I read it, and I am now very interested in reading Rivka Galchen’s other books.