Isobel's husband abandons her in the new American colonies, where she befriends Nathanial Hawthorne and inspires The Scarlet Letter.

• The day after we went on sale, Gillian Flynn appeared on the Today Show and called Hester the best historical novel of fall. Hester has also been named to the IndieNext and LibraryReads lists for October, and was a Book of the Month Club selection for October.
• Laurie spent years researching Nathaniel Hawthorne's early career and the history of Salem during and after the infamous witch trials. She studied the intricacies of needlework and embroidery in the early 19th century, to better inform her descriptions of Isobel's talents, and she delved deep into the archives to understand the burgeoning presence of the Underground Railroad in New England in the late 1820's and early 1830's. While the novel is rich with visual detail, it is also vibrantly imagined, and takes readers on a transporting journey into a world painted in vivid color, and marked by legend and adventure.
• The Scarlet Letter is an American origin story of sorts: immediately popular at publication, the novel not only shone a light on the Puritanism of the early colonies, but it also dared to call itself "a romance"--revealing that the conflict between societal constraints and human passion is embedded in our nation's history. As the characters in Hester grapple with what the American promise really means for them, the reader is reminded that this very same question is as present and urgent today. Hester further illuminates how, throughout the ages, women who are different are deemed dangerous, and that to embrace one's intuitive, sensory powers is both brave and necessary.