Cast A Long Shadow

by Leena Lander

In the final decades of the twentieth century, a writer haunted by the long shadow of history contemplates her protagonist, Judge Nils Pilsander. In a series of trials conducted in Finland in the 1660s, Pilsander condemned seven innocent women to death for witchcraft. Author Leena Lander uses her shadow-author's own increasing self-doubt to call into question easy notions of innocence and guilt. While bringing to life the story of Northern Europe's most infamous witch hunt, Lander untangles the skein of deceit and treachery, of political intrigue and human indifference which permitted the tragic deaths of seven innocents.