Kiran Millwood Hargrave
The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is set in a European village near Strasbourg in the early 16th century. The central character is Lisbet—young, married, and pregnant. As the story unfolds, we learn Lisbet’s previous twelve pregnancies have all resulted in miscarriages. Lisbet mourns her loss and commemorates it by fastening ribbons and small tokens on to a large tree deep in the forest. She consoles herself by retreating to this private, sacred space. She also finds consolation by tenderly nurturing bees to provide the family with a livelihood. Lisbet lives with her husband and mother-in-law. They are soon joined by Agnethe, Lisbet’s sister-in-law, who returns after performing seven years penance in a monastery for an apparent sin, the nature of which remains concealed until later in the novel. Meanwhile, Lisbet’s husband is threatened with the loss of his beehives and has to travel to Heidelberg to plead his case, leaving the three women alone.
Against the backdrop of a starving, poverty-stricken community and the repressive stranglehold of the church, a woman starts dancing non-stop in the market square. Soon she is joined by other women until there are so many that the city council fears mass hysteria. It harasses the women, persecutes them, imprisons them, and kills them. The situation deteriorates. Thrown into the mix are complications encompassing illicit relationships, a city council member who claims to be doing God’s work as he terrorizes the people, and Turkish musicians who are called upon to play for the dancing women in an attempt to cure them of their mania.
The novel’s strength lies in evoking the sights, sounds, and smells of a 16th century European village where superstitions run rampant fueled by fears promulgated by the church. The struggles and challenges faced by the villagers as they try to eke out a living for themselves and their children is effectively captured. Lisbet’s care of the bees is described in vivid detail. But the novel is weak in character development. The characters lack subtlety and nuance. They are either wholly good, like Lisbet and her cohorts; or wholly wicked, like Plater, the evil council man. The themes of misogyny, bigotry, racism, and the church’s abuse of authority all conclude in what feels like a hurried and improbable tying of loose ends.