The Witch Hunter's Amulet
With the Inquisition extended to Portugal’s overseas territories, Manuel Andrade is sent by the Catholic Church to Goa, India, to arrest witches—the consorts of Satan. In 1564 he arrives in India— deathly ill, he is convinced that in order to recover, he needs to assemble a jeweled amulet. Andrade is Ill-prepared to deal with the intricacies of life and the culture in India. The country is on the brink of war between the Hindu Vijayanagar Empire and the Muslim Sultans of the Deccan Plateau. The Portuguese, ever-hungry for territorial expansion and for more Catholic converts, add fuel to the fire, bringing the cauldron to its boiling point. Based on both real and fictional events and characters this novel graphically explores the terrible themes of hypocrisy, persecution and torture that characterized this period. Also rich in lush detail, The Witch Hunter’s Amulet allows the reader’s senses to experience the exotic smells, sights and vivid colors of 16th century India.
The Story Behind This Book
Portugal’s violent occupation of India in the sixteenth century was much more than a plunder of the country’s great material wealth. The Portuguese also sought to stamp out the ancient traditions of Hinduism and Islam throughout their Asian territories— everyone living in Portuguese India, centered in Goa, was forced to convert to Catholicism. The Witch Hunter gets wealthy by arresting women accused of being the consorts of Satan. As an official, but very much the showman, Andrade is sent to Goa to work for the Office of the Inquisition. There his life is thrown into turmoil when he is convinced that he needs to possess a navaratna, a jeweled amulet. In this historical novel, we follow the Witch Hunter on a Quixotic journey through colonial India. Oblivious of the true conditions of the world which he has entered, he clings to his old ways as he tries to create his own reality. He is poisoned—sick and half-crazed, he goes in search of the jewels that he believes will restore his health. He blunders through a tiger hunt, goes to war, does his work in the torture chambers of the Grand Inquisitor and presides over a farcical witch-trial gone wrong. Eventually, he too is thrown into the inquisitors’ dungeons to face trial for heresy.