{ "item_title" : "The Hounding", "item_author" : [" Xenobe Purvis "], "item_description" : "National Bestseller - A New York Times Book Review Book Club Pick - A New York Times Notable Book - Indies Choice Awards Finalist - Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, TIME and Kirkus Reviews - The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth-century England whose neighbors are convinced they're turning into dogs.ONE OF PEOPLE'S, APPLE BOOKS', AND AMAZON'S BEST BOOKS OF AUGUST 2025 A wildly inventive riff on the Gothic form, with enough suspense and mounting dread to rival Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery.'--The New York Times Even before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbank to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before. The truth is that though the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls--a little odd, think some; a little high on themselves, perhaps--they've always had plenty to say about them. As the rotating perspectives of five villagers quickly make clear, now is no exception. Even if local belief in witchcraft is waning, an aversion to difference is as widespread as ever, and these conflicting narratives all point to the same ultimate conclusion: Something isn't right in Little Nettlebed, and the sisters will be the ones to pay for it. A richly atmospheric parable of the pleasures and perils of female defiance, The Hounding considers whether in any age it might be safer to be a dog than an unusual young girl.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/25/036/638/1250366380_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "26.99", "online_price" : "26.99", "our_price" : "26.99", "club_price" : "26.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "26.99" } }

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In a 1700s English village, rumors are potent, and the truth tends to transform when it is told. Xenobe Purvis’s debut novel, The Hounding, tells the story of five sisters—the Mansfields—who live in the village of Little Nettlebed. The book moves between perspectives of the townspeople, while asking whose stories we believe, and why.

These unconventional sisters, who live with their grandfather on the outskirts of the village, are met with uneasy glances and suspicion in town. After a heatwave strikes, and a strange creature washes up on the river bank, men in the village begin to talk. One claims that he has seen the Mansfield girls turn into wild dogs. Up against a man’s word, the girls are immediately in danger. As various figures in the village exploit their power to further the truth most convenient for them, speculation abounds and the community slips toward chaos.

In short chapters that burst open, five villagers share their perspectives on the gossip around the Mansfield girls, creating a kaleidoscope of viewpoints and beliefs. The prose is vibrant, and each chapter leaves you with questions about what came before and what will come next. 

Of the number of recent novels about sisterhood, The Hounding feels the most in conversation with Daisy Johnson’s Sisters and Julia Phillips’ Bear, which similarly explore intertwined fates, the wild versus the civilized, and who is to be believed. The Hounding also calls back to Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible, reminding us that questions of voice and power remain just as relevant today.