The Errors of Dr Browne by Mark Winkler

This was a difficult one for me to fully quantify, and I hazard to say that The Errors of Dr Browne by Mark Winkler is one of those books that may well repay one well for a reread in a few years' time. I went into this knowing very little about the story – other than the barest of blurbs – and I had no idea that it was indeed based on real people and happenings. I don't have much to compare it to, but I did read The Devils of Loudon by Aldous Huxley a good number of years ago, so I'd say that this would comfortably fall under the same banner.

We meet Dr Browne in the seventeenth century when he gets called to act as an inquisitor in a witch trial. Although he is deeply religious, Dr Browne also considers himself a man of science and reason, which leads to him experiencing bucket loads of cognitive dissonance when he embarks on his investigation. From the outset, we are faced with the inexplicable behaviour of the possessed girls, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that there is no way in hell that the two accused could have had any strange, magical powers to affect the girls. Yet you can't exactly point that out to your average, deeply superstitious and religious citizen of that time and place.

But Dr Browne, although he's aware that the villagers are persecuting the women for the sake of simply having an answer for their problems (and just because they simply don't like them) he also cannot explain the strange events that result in all manner of peculiar phenomena. He does come to the conclusion that the 'evidence' being offered against the two unfortunates really isn't ironclad. Nor do the authorities even seem to care that anyone gets to the truth behind all the strange goings on. 

We get to see humanity, warts and all, gleefully ganging up on those who are unable to defend themselves, and we realise that even though centuries have passed since Dr Browne was called to deliver testimony, at heart, people really haven't changed much over the years.

The Errors of Dr Browne is both quirky and darkly humorous, but also a disquieting dive into the less savoury aspects of human interaction, where bigotry and lack of empathy rule the day, and good people are often carried along helplessly in the wake of awful situations. Winkler captures the essence of this time with all its dirt and drudgery, and while this is not an easy book to read, it's nonetheless one that will leave its fingerprints all over your brain afterwards.