A bold, heartfelt epic, Ordinary Women takes the storied history of the Salem Witch Trials and turns it into an allegory for our times, a whip-smart inditement of a culture that turns neighbour to enemy, friend to stranger, woman to witch.

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The Devil, it seems, has come to the New World.

For newly-weds Elizabeth and John Allen, the American colonies promise an opportunity to begin again, to open a printing press in Boston that could shape the future of the new world.

For others - like Faith Abbott, an accomplished midwife; the Turner twins, Purity and Sara; and Grace Hutchinson, daughter of Salem's preeminent woodworker - the colonies have been home for many years.

But nothing comes easy in this new land: a deadly plague has begun to spread in the Boston harbour and there are rumours of women being pinched by invisible hands, of unwanted visitors in the night and dark voices carried to them by the wind.

In Salem, the witch trials are about to begin ...

With a startling combination of heart and wit, Lara Prescott has crafted an immersive, emotionally acute historical novel about what it means to be a woman in a world dominated by fear.