Written as a fictional origin story for The Scarlet Letter, the true alchemy of Albanese’s narrative is in its depiction of a relationship between Isobel Gamble and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The tension! The chemistry! The red flags! Isobel is a young Scottish seamstress recently immigrated to Salem with her much-older husband, an apothecary with an opium addiction and an impossible dream to invent an elixir of life. In short order, her husband succeeds in building a pyramid scheme of investments in his fraudulent venture, steals his wife’s savings and abandons her in Salem while he sets off to sea. Enter twenty-five year-old Nathaniel Hawthorne - brooding, ambitious and set on Isobel.

Hester feels most similar to The Book of Longings in its desire to give women at the center of the narrative agency and voice. Midway through the book, as it becomes clear Hawthorne sees Isobel as his muse, she tells us “...I’m standing before him with a life of my own and a heart that is my own. I’ve told him my secrets and shown him my passion... And still, he looks at me and sees only himself.” And THAT is what we come away with from this read, the frustration that Hester and many women depicted in "classics" have never actually been the main characters of their own stories.

This was an immersive, page-turning read, though I struggled with themes that felt a bit overstated, and I was confused by the depiction of Isobel’s speech (described throughout as the rough Scottish brogue of a new immigrant with little to no formal education, but not written to reflect this?). Contrasted with the dialogue written for other characters, the inexplicably formal speech of our main character was a confusing decision.

 *Edit: This particular frustration has stuck with me on further reflection. It feels particularly uncomfortable because the main character is white, and the dialogue for Black characters feels purposefully broken in a way that isn't reflected equally. I've modified my star rating down to reflect further thought on this.