Pre-order What We Sacrifice for Magic: A Novel — available everywhere on September 24, 2024.
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About What We Sacrifice for Magic: A Novel
Perfect for fans of Practical Magic and The Lager Queen of Minnesota: A coming-of-age novel following three generations of witches in the 1960s, this enchanting and heartwarming debut explores the importance of family and the delight and heartbreak of discovering who you truly are.
It’s 1968, and the Watry-Ridder family is feared and respected in equal measure. The local farmers seek out their water charms, and the teenagers, their love spells. The family’s charms and spells, passed down through generations of witches descending from the Black Forest, have long served the small town of Friedrich, Minnesota.
Eldest daughter Elisabeth has just graduated high school—she is expected to hone her supernatural abilities to take over for her grandmother, the indomitable Madga. She’s also expected to marry her high school sweetheart and live the rest of her life in Friedrich. But all she can ask is, why her? Why is her path set in stone, and what else might be out there for her?
She soon discovers that magic isn’t the only thing inherited in her family. That magic also comes with a great price—and a big family secret. The more she digs, the more questions she has, and the less she trusts the grandmother she thought she knew. Who is Elisabeth without her family? She must ultimately decide what she’s willing to sacrifice for her family, for their secrets and their magic, or risk it all to pave her own way.
Navigating the bittersweet tension between self-discovery and living up to familial expectations, What We Sacrifice for Magic is a touching look at coming into one’s own.
Praise for What We Sacrifice for Magic
“DeWerd serves up a hefty portion of comfort food and witchcraft . . . With enough summer sausage, seances, and ’60s scene-setting to charm even the least nostalgic of readers.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Lovers of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic, and anyone who adored the setting and the family dynamics of The Lager Queen of Minnesota . . . will fall hard for DeWerd’s debut, a coming-of-age and coming-into-power story about sacrifice and sisterhood.”
—Library Journal
“DeWerd adds magic to a classic coming-of-age story, and the results are a magical, debut historical-fiction novel.”
—Booklist
“For fans of magic, of sisters, and of the unexpected, What We Sacrifice for Magic is the book you want. It is charmed, charming and a poignant and compelling coming-of-age story.”
—Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of In Love
“What We Sacrifice for Magic beautifully captures the tension between the legacies we inherit and the courses we chart for ourselves . . . DeWerd’s plot summons our attention, and enchantment thrums in every direction.”
—Matthew Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Not Ourselves
“A high stakes coming-of-age story with a heroine you’ll root for and a deep dive into one girl’s dilemma over just what it means to wield her own power . . . This is an exuberant debut; Andrea Jo DeWerd writes with obvious love for her own craft, and readers will look forward to more from her.”
—Allison Pataki, New York Times bestselling author of Finding Margaret Fuller
“Even magic is no easy answer for a young woman coming of age in the sixties under the weight of family and social expectations. Poignant and steeped in summer magic, young Lisbett will capture your heart.”
—Helen Simonson, New York Times bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
“Beneath the gossamer veil of Andrea DeWerd’s enchanting debut is a steely examination of power and its consequences on the magic-wielding Watry-Ridder family. Tenderly written, with spot-on period details, What We Sacrifice for Magic is a beautiful book about the courage it takes to change, if not the stars of our lives, the constellations we make of them.”
—Sally Franson, author of A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out
“Andrea DeWerd’s debut is a beautifully written saga of women whose magic has held them together—and broken them apart—across the ages. There’s something for everyone here: love, family, sisterhood, magic, adventure, and most of all, Elisabeth, a protagonist to root for as she finds her way into who she’s meant to become. I came away from this novel with my heart full!”
—Donna Freitas, author of The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano