Bright I Burn

Molly Aitken

Bright I Burn by Molly Aitken (Hardback ISBN 9781786898388) book cover

Available as Hardback

6 June 2024

A blazing tale of power, patriarchy and sexuality, based on the true story of the first woman in Ireland to have been condemned as a witch

In thirteenth-century Ireland, a woman with power is a woman to be feared.

When a young Alice Kyteler sees her mother wither under the constraints of family responsibilities, she vows that she won’t suffer the same fate. Soon Alice discovers she has a flair for making money, and builds a flourishing business. But as her wealth and stature grow, so too do the rumours about her private life. By the time she has moved on to her fourth husband, a blaze of local gossip and resentment culminates in an accusation that could prove fatal.

Inspired by the first recorded person in Ireland to have been condemned as a witch, Bright I Burn gives voice to a woman lost to history, who dared to carve her own space in a man’s world.


“Extraordinary … Some of the best prose I’ve read”
Elaine Feeney

See more reviews

“Spellbinding witch literature … A stunning rendition of one fierce Irish woman’s voice pitted against the patriarchal power constructs of Medieval Ireland”
Anya Bergman

“Aitken is a distinct, singular, stunning voice in historical fiction, and Bright I Burn is a triumph. It took my breath away”
Jenny Mustard

“A gorgeous, blazing novel, that makes history crackle to life. Fans of Maggie Farrell’s Hamnet or A.K. Blakemore’s The Manningtree Witches will love Aitken’s complex, sensual anti-heroine”
Clare Pollard

“I was captivated. Every sentence reads like poetry. A stunning, magical, beguiling book”
Huma Qureshi


Molly Aitken

Molly Aitken was born in Scotland and brought up in Ireland. Her short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, for which she won the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction 2023, Banshee, and has been dramatized for BBC Radio 4. Her first novel The Island Child was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award. Molly is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing and History at Sheffield Hallam University.

@MollyAitken1 | @molly.aitken