They Can't Burn Us All

Westfjords, Iceland. 1655


Þuríður Jónsdóttir has grown up praying to the old gods and watching her father and brother practise rune magic.

But now, a witch-hunting craze is sweeping across the land of ice and fire, fuelled by the Protestant Reformation. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, those condemned as witches here are not women, but men of learning. And when Þuríður’s father and brother are accused of witchcraft and condemned to burn at the stake, she is helpless to save them.

As Lutheran Pastor Jón Magnússon's accusing gaze turns to Þuríður herself, the first woman to be called ‘witch’, he will find that she is no ordinary woman.

She is prepared to fight back. But at what cost?

And in an age of fear and persecution, whose side will the community take? Who will fight for justice?

Set against a backdrop of sweeping religious and social change, They Can’t Burn Us All is a feminist retelling of Iceland’s notorious Kirkjuból witch trials.