‘The Witch’s Heart’ Shows How Heartbreak Guides Us To Recovery

In Genevieve Gornichec’s charming debut, the story of a witch’s life reveals the lead-up to Ragnarok

In Over Coffee, writer, reader, and haphazard reviewer Angela Lashbrook chats with authors about their recent books, and quizzes them on their hot breakfast takes.

When Madeleine Miller’s Circe released to widespread acclaim from audiences and critics alike, it indicated that readers have an unmistakable need for mythology retellings that are rooted not only in the fantasy tradition, but in literary and historical fiction as well. Genevieve Gornichec’s beautiful The Witch’s Heart, about the Norse jötunn Angrboda, is a worthy successor in a genre that will hopefully see more action in the coming years.

When The Witch’s Heart begins, Angrboda, a jötunn (or giant — though it’s worth noting that in Norse mythology, “giants” are not the gigantic beings we’re familiar with today) is recuperating after fleeing Asgard, one of the nine worlds, and the one where the gods, such as Odin, reside. For the transgression of her clairvoyant talents, which she refused to employ to the extent that Odin wished her to, she was burned three times, each time surviving. Only the third time does she manage to escape, and there, on the riverbank of…