A magnificent storyteller with vast imaginative range Anita Diamant gave voice to the silent women of the Old Testament in <I>The Red Tent.</I> Now in her third novel she brings to vivid life an early New England world that history has forgotten. <br> Set on Cape Ann in the early 1800s <I>The Last Days of Dogtown</I> is peopled by widows orphans spinsters scoundrels whores free Africans and 'witches.' Among the inhabitants of Dogtown is Black Ruth an African woman who dresses as a man and works as a stone mason; Mrs. Stanley an imperious madam whose grandson Sammy comes of age in her rural brothel; Oliver Younger who survives a miserable childhood at the hands of a very strange aunt; and Cornelius Finson a freed slave whose race denies him everything. At the center of it all is Judy Rhines a fiercely independent soul deeply lonely who nonetheless builds a life for herself and inspires those around her to become more generous and tolerant themselves. <br> This is a story of hardship and resilience -- and an extraordinary re-creation of an untold chapter of early American life. With a keen ear for language and profound compassion for her characters Diamant has created her most moving and powerful story.