Book excerpt: DANCING IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND is a novel about the horrors of the European witch persecutions as revealed through Eva Rosen, a young widow accused of witchcraft, her persecutor Wilhelm Hampelmann, and her defender Franz Lutz. A cautionary tale about the dangers of religious zealotry, the novel recreates the world of early 17th century Germany when sexual repression and religious war were encouraged, rigid patriarchy prevailed in church, state, and family - and no one questioned the existence of witches or their master, the Devil.