“Whenever you are of need, come to Me when the moon is full and I will, Hecate, Queen of all witches and heaven guide you, my daughter, to your heart’s desire.”
In 1665, Baroness Elisabeth von Galler is faced with the frenzy of the witch trials racing through Europe. As the “Faith-Keeper” of an ancient Goddess worshipping community can she save her loved ones from certain death and her religion from disappearing? Her son-in-law acquires dispensation from the Kaiser to hold trials in Riegerburg…
Katarina Lilienthal fears for the lives of her Jewish husband and daughter when Hitler arrives in Austria in 1938. With the help of her secret “Book of Shadows”; her legacy passed down from Elisabeth, and her intuition she is able to save her family before the worst begins…
Seventy years later, Sarah Lilienthal inherits her beloved Oma’s secret book. Katarina’s death wish is for Sarah to travel to Austria, the very same Austria where Sarah’s grandparents barely escaped with their lives in 1938, and make amends with Oma’s estranged family. Sarah is cast on a quest to find her true self and the origins of the book by traveling to Riegersburg where the book’s journey began.
Ananke Press is thrilled to announce the signing of our newest author, Julie Anne Stratton, with her series of historical novels that follow a line of extraordinary women through the ages. The first book in the series, The Witches of Riegersburg, is coming out in early 2020.
We are aware that the gods of patriarchy are pale derivatives and reversals of ancient yet always Present Goddess(es).” - Mary Daly, Quintessence: Realizing the Archaic Future
The Story
The Witches of Riegersburg follows the lives of three women who belong to a long line of witches. From the dramatic tale of Baroness Elisabeth von Galler, a historic character from 17th century Austria, to the young Katarina Lilienthal, a young girl on the run from the Nazis in the WWII Europe, to our contemporary, a modern American woman trying to discover her identity — the story illuminates both epic and intimate facets in a woman’s life.
