--- product_id: 192028223 title: "Conjure Women: A Novel" price: "₱902" currency: PHP in_stock: false reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.ph/products/192028223-conjure-women-a-novel store_origin: PH region: Philippines --- # Conjure Women: A Novel **Price:** ₱902 **Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Conjure Women: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** ₱902 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Currently out of stock - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ph](https://www.desertcart.ph/products/192028223-conjure-women-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A mother and daughter with a shared talent for healing—and for the conjuring of curses—are at the heart of this dazzling first novel WINNER OF THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • NPR • Parade • Book Riot • PopMatters “Lush, irresistible . . . It took me into the hearts of women I could otherwise never know. I was transported.”—Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of White Houses and Away Conjure Women is a sweeping story that brings the world of the South before and after the Civil War vividly to life. Spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman; her precocious and observant daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a midwife; and their master’s daughter Varina. The secrets and bonds among these women and their community come to a head at the beginning of a war and at the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom. Magnificently written, brilliantly researched, richly imagined, Conjure Women moves back and forth in time to tell the haunting story of Rue, Varina, and May Belle, their passions and friendships, and the lengths they will go to save themselves and those they love. LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE “[A] haunting, promising debut . . . Through complex characters and bewitching prose, Atakora offers a stirring portrait of the power conferred between the enslaved women. This powerful tale of moral ambiguity amid inarguable injustice stands with Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “An engrossing debut . . . Atakora structures a plot with plenty of satisfying twists. Life in the immediate aftermath of slavery is powerfully rendered in this impressive first novel.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Review: Breathtaking read - This book is definitely in the running for my favorite book of the year, hell I think it IS my favorite book of the year. Definite 5/5 from me. Thank you to Netgalley for hooking me up with an ARC of this great novel, that I don't know I would have heard of otherwise. 'Conjure Women' follows Rue throughout her childhood and adulthood, seeing her mother being a healer and her own later attempts at trying to be the new healer. Of course nothing is easy and plot happens. There are a few chapters that are told from her mother's perspective, but they are few in number. The chapters do alternate with one in the past and one in the 'present' of Post-Civil War. The past sections do slowly catch up to the 'present' and the closer it gets the more you're able to see just how things got this way. Rue feels like she is losing the ability to work miracles and there is outside pressure that might make everyone lose their new homes once again. This is more literary than fantasy, and while magic does exist in this book I think it definitely swings more towards the folk magic direction than what most people think of when they think of magic. It didn't affect my rating, but I feel like I should clarify that for people looking at reviews. Our MC, Rue, is delightfully complex and she feels like a real person put into page form. Her relationships both in her childhood and adulthood feel the same. They all have ups and downs, and both feel like they could be part of a real relationship. The timeline of events also makes sense and marches at such a pace that I never found myself confused about the way things happened, besides when it was intentional for you to be a bit lost. (Mostly when it comes to reveals that happen in the second half) The book is plotted so well that the twists just keep getting revealed and you're slowly piecing together the story or what happened, and what is going to happen after. The only dull moment might be towards the beginning, but I wouldn't even count that as slow. There is enough intrigue built up right away that you want to find out more, and more secrets just keep coming and before I knew it I was totally sucked in. This was an incredible read and I just finished it today and I already want to read it all over again. Review: Powerful - First, let me note that I am in no way an expert ‘reviewer’, and very seldom write reviews. I simply love to read and have read a range of historical fiction in my long life. I found ‘Conjure Women’ an excellent read, very interesting, and insightful. I grew up in the South listening to women with firsthand knowledge of slavery through the stories of their parents and grandparents, an oral history. It’s true that the sentence structure and syntax attributed to the slaves was at times possibly over complex, but I don’t think it took away from the story. As other reviewers noted, the story does switch back and forth among May Belle, Rue, and Varina; and Varina’s story was not as clear or fully faceted (my opinion) as the other two women. However, I truly enjoyed the storyline. The writing was rich in detail , and appears to be well-researched. I think this is an excellent first book for the young author! And, it’s well worth the time spent reading. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #70,872 in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 in Kindle Store ) #50 in Historical African Fiction #125 in Black & African American Literary Fiction #422 in Literary Sagas | ## Images ![Conjure Women: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/814rvpsWezL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Breathtaking read *by T***. on July 1, 2020* This book is definitely in the running for my favorite book of the year, hell I think it IS my favorite book of the year. Definite 5/5 from me. Thank you to Netgalley for hooking me up with an ARC of this great novel, that I don't know I would have heard of otherwise. 'Conjure Women' follows Rue throughout her childhood and adulthood, seeing her mother being a healer and her own later attempts at trying to be the new healer. Of course nothing is easy and plot happens. There are a few chapters that are told from her mother's perspective, but they are few in number. The chapters do alternate with one in the past and one in the 'present' of Post-Civil War. The past sections do slowly catch up to the 'present' and the closer it gets the more you're able to see just how things got this way. Rue feels like she is losing the ability to work miracles and there is outside pressure that might make everyone lose their new homes once again. This is more literary than fantasy, and while magic does exist in this book I think it definitely swings more towards the folk magic direction than what most people think of when they think of magic. It didn't affect my rating, but I feel like I should clarify that for people looking at reviews. Our MC, Rue, is delightfully complex and she feels like a real person put into page form. Her relationships both in her childhood and adulthood feel the same. They all have ups and downs, and both feel like they could be part of a real relationship. The timeline of events also makes sense and marches at such a pace that I never found myself confused about the way things happened, besides when it was intentional for you to be a bit lost. (Mostly when it comes to reveals that happen in the second half) The book is plotted so well that the twists just keep getting revealed and you're slowly piecing together the story or what happened, and what is going to happen after. The only dull moment might be towards the beginning, but I wouldn't even count that as slow. There is enough intrigue built up right away that you want to find out more, and more secrets just keep coming and before I knew it I was totally sucked in. This was an incredible read and I just finished it today and I already want to read it all over again. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Powerful *by R***N on July 10, 2020* First, let me note that I am in no way an expert ‘reviewer’, and very seldom write reviews. I simply love to read and have read a range of historical fiction in my long life. I found ‘Conjure Women’ an excellent read, very interesting, and insightful. I grew up in the South listening to women with firsthand knowledge of slavery through the stories of their parents and grandparents, an oral history. It’s true that the sentence structure and syntax attributed to the slaves was at times possibly over complex, but I don’t think it took away from the story. As other reviewers noted, the story does switch back and forth among May Belle, Rue, and Varina; and Varina’s story was not as clear or fully faceted (my opinion) as the other two women. However, I truly enjoyed the storyline. The writing was rich in detail , and appears to be well-researched. I think this is an excellent first book for the young author! And, it’s well worth the time spent reading. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Kafkaesque *by R***R on August 20, 2020* This is not just another slavery-oriented historical novel based on the author's family tradition. This author was born in England and lives in New Jersey She has no southern roots. Yes, she researched the period meticulously. But then she created an artificial world in which her characters could come alive and thrive despite crushing obstacles. That's what makes this book unique and interesting. It's not about the horrors of slavery. Rather it's about characters caught in a limbo-land between slavery and freedom, who don't really know what freedom means. There are two interwoven threads of story -- pre- and post- Civil War. The pre- is realistic, with dashes of possible magic and heavy foreshadowing of secrets, lies and their possible consequences. The plantation and the light dialect are not connected to any particular state. It's a generic, plausible, familiar setting for a Civil War/slavery story. The post- is an artificial world where the characters have to figure out their real identities and their real connections to one another. Through a series of lies for five years after the war, everything continues on the plantation as it had before the war. The characters feel tied to the land, but not by force of ownership and law. The plantation has no known owner and somehow (unexplained) everything continues as before. The implication is that they continue to work as they had before though now there is no owner and presumably no overseer. Somehow, they survive on the produce of the plantation without any need to sell or buy anything. Somehow, no one ever expects the plantation to pay taxes. Supernatural possibilities hum in the background but are never confirmed, This post-war world feels Kafkaesque or scifi. This novel isn't a hackneyed indictment of slavery. Rather it's an exploration of what happens to people when they are forced to live through extraordinary experiences, how they can relate to one another and how they can both shape and discover their identities. The rough edges, the questions left unanswered or answered ambiguously heighten the interest and make the characters all the more engaging and credible, and tempt the reader to read it a second or even a third time. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.ph/products/192028223-conjure-women-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.ph/products/192028223-conjure-women-a-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart Philippines* *Store origin: PH* *Last updated: 2026-08-15*