The Visionist
“The Visionist is both a haunting, beautifully imagined tale of lives devastated by cruelty and transformed by love and a gorgeously evocative portrait of an 1840s Shaker settlement that is as startling as it is convincing.”
Cathy Marie Buchanan, New York Times bestselling author of The Painted Girls
An enthralling debut novel about a teenage girl who finds refuge—but perhaps not—in an 1840s Shaker community
In this exquisite, transporting debut, fifteen-year-old Polly Kimball sets fire to the family farm, killing her abusive father. She and her young brother find shelter in a Massachusetts Shaker community called the City of Hope. It is the Era of Manifestations, when young girls in Shaker enclaves all across the Northeast are experiencing extraordinary mystical visions, earning them the honorific of "Visionist" and bringing renown to their settlements.
The City of Hope has not yet been blessed with a Visionist, but that changes when Polly arrives and is unexpectedly exalted. As she struggles to keep her dark secrets concealed in the face of increasing scrutiny, Polly finds herself in a life-changing friendship with a young Shaker sister named Charity, a girl who will stake everything—including her faith—on Polly's honesty and purity.
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