Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch is a fictional account of a 17th century German witch trial involving Katharina Kepler, mother of famous astronomer Johannes Kepler. I really enjoyed the voice of Katharina and the way she was portrayed, with her positive characteristics highlighted as well as the negative ones - opinionated, meddlesome, forthright, sarcastic, and cantankerous - which probably partly underlie why the accusations were made in the first place.  The story also highlighted the petty jealousies and resentments which underlay the accusations as well as the farcical nature of the trial - leading questions, mob mentality, no proof of a link between cause and effect and more. Reading about witch trials in a setting that wasn’t America or England was interesting but it was Katharina herself which made this book shine 

Galchen takes an interesting historical anecdote and dives into the interiority of Katharina Kepler, an old widow and mother of the Imperial Mathematician, who loves cows and speaking her mind. In the form of narrative dictated to her friend Simon (Katharina is illiterate, it's the early 1600s), court transcripts, letters, and an occasional interjections from Simon, this book tells the story of Katharina's accusations of witchcraft, her trial, and her life throughout. 

I adore the way Galchen plays with voice and modernity in this story, with humor and empathy. For subjects so sad- persecution, misogyny, ageism, war, poverty, loss- this book manages to contain a lightness that I found so refreshing. This was such an interesting world to be let into and I really enjoyed it.