The Misunderstood

Résumé du livre

A fictional tale based on the life of a woman whose story is told during the soul crawls, a part of Halloween at Laurel Hill Cemetery Philadelphia. On the day that Abraham Lincoln died Mattie Drinnan was born into an Irish Catholic family. Her father, Joseph, was the superintendent of the Laurel Hill Cemetery, and the family lived directly across the street. Even as Mattie took her first breaths of life, her older half-sister, Sarah tried to toss Mattie into a fire. She was rescued by her father only to find that she had the mind of a savant and the powers of the supernatural. As the pain of others entered Mattie's mind and body she sought to heal and end cruelty in the world. Her powers were only possible if she maintained her anonymity. Young Sarah, after witnessing her mother's agonizing death during childbirth, became intent on ending the lives of women and pubescent girls using poisonous plants. Murder delights her. She hates Mattie, borne of her father's new wife, and tries to convince everyone that Mattie is a dangerous changeling. Perhaps she is. Her half-brother, Vincent, forms a hatred of Mattie based on fear. Can she read his mind? Does she know Vincent shares a passionate love with his best friend, Sean? Sarah, Vincent and Sean want Mattie to disappear forever, which in a strange way she eventually does. The story of Mattie's travails spans five decades. It wends through war, child labor abuses, slums, high culture, mass murder, women's suffrage, séances, homosexual love and medical incompetence. In the end, Mattie triumphs through bold subterfuge, aided by several unusual women far more independent and educated than the majority of their contemporaries.