Newes from the Dead - by Mary Hooper (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"Intriguing and captivating."--Celia Rees, author of Witch Child

WRONGED. HANGED. ALIVE? (AND TRUE!)
Anne can't move a muscle, can't open her eyes, can't scream. She lies immobile in the darkness, unsure if she'd dead, terrified she's buried alive, haunted by her final memory--of being hanged. A maidservant falsely accused of infanticide in 1650 England and sent to the scaffold, Anne Green is trapped with her racing thoughts, her burning need to revisit the events--and the man--that led her to the gallows.

Meanwhile, a shy 18-year-old medical student attends his first dissection and notices something strange as the doctors prepare their tools . . . Did her eyelids just flutter? Could this corpse be alive?

Beautifully written, impossible to put down, and meticulously researched, Newes from the Dead is based on the true story of the real Anne Green, a servant who survived a hanging to awaken on the dissection table. Newes from the Dead concludes with scans of the original 1651 document that recounts this chilling medical phenomenon.

Newes from the Dead is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Review Quotes

"Intriguing and captivating." --Celia Rees

"A chilling, mesmerizing read." --Kirkus Reviews

"A grabber of a premise." --School Library Journal

"A historical mystery that is creepy in the best Edgar Allen Poe tradition, as well as thought-provoking." --Booklist

"First-rate . . . Anne's story, handled with skill and passion, will be hard for anyone to put down." --The Times (UK)

"A well researched, riveting read." --The Horn Book

About the Author

MARY HOOPER says, "When I heard Anne Green's story on the car radio, I was absolutely captivated. I went straight home to find out more about her. What a story hers was: she gave birth in the most primitive conditions, then was thrown into a freezing, stinking prison and, later, sentenced to death. She said a said farewell to her family, climbed the scaffold, and then . . . what? Anne was 'dead' for several hours. Where did she go? I immersed myself in the facts, then sat down at my computer. I pictured her in her coffin; I felt I knew what she would want to say. My fingers began to fly across the keys . . ."

Mary Hooper has written more than 60 books for children and young adults, earning high praise as well as the North East Book Award for her YA novel, Megan. She has two grown children and lives with her husband Richard in Oxfordshire, England, the same area Anne Green came from.