Bright I Burn by Molly Aitken

I loved this book, which while set in the 13th century, it feels familiar on a number of levels. Alice Kyteler was born in 1280 in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Her father was an innkeeper and a money lender. As the only child, she was schooled in these matters, which was most unusual for a woman at the time. Of course, she also was expected to marry --- and marry she did, early and then often in her remarkably long life. Alice is based on a real historical figure, but her voice and the more intimate details of her life are fictional. While Alice was prepared by both her parents with skills to successfully navigate life, Alice was abused by her father and as a result she was driven to murder him, using poisons that she learned from her mother. Her four husbands also died in turn, some under suspicious circumstances. It was these deaths, along with the growing scrutiny of Alice's success financially, that led to her being tried and convicted as a witch, the first woman in Ireland to have done so. The attitudes of those around her to her remarkable success in life seem very similar to modern attitudes, leaving me with feeling like while centuries have passed, the barriers remain.