A Mercy

By: Toni Morrison

Narrated by: Toni Morrison

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

A powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece by the Nobel Prize - winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier.

In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.

Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh north. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, "with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady." Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.

There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who's spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens' mother. These are all men and women inventing themselves in the wilderness.

A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.

Acts of mercy may have unforeseen consequences.

©2008 Toni Morrison (P)2008 Random House Audio

Great story, but...

Author Toni Morrison has written a great book again. However, she is very difficult to listen to. Monotone voice, lacking in emotion. This book would have been much better served bay a narrator with acting experience. I am always wary of books read by the author, and this book certainly validated that wariness.

beautiful

As always Toni Morrison crafted an incredibly beautiful story. the interview at the end was great

The different lives of the characters

The author reads beautifully. Enjoyed the merging of the different lives, experiences and knowledge. The times it happens, the images my mind held. Always have enjoyed this author.

Great book

Magnificent book from Toni Morrison. A story about love and betrayal in the late 1600s. A story told from multiple points of view. Morrison uses stream of consciousness for most of the book, what reminds me of Faulkner and "The Sound and The Fury". Not an easy book to read because until you finish it you really do not get the whole story: literally until the very last sentence of the novel.

I think this book is easier to read that to listen to, because each chapter is narrated by one character, and in the audiobook version the separation between chapters is not clear. Toni Morrison has a wonderful evocative voice, but she does not try to change it for each character of the novel, relying only for identification of each of them on the different way they express themselves. The makes the audition confusing, at least initially. I ended up reading the book on paper at the same time that I was listening to Toni Morrison's voice, and then I was completely hooked on the book.

Beautiful story, beautiful read

Thank you Toni Morrison for writing this heart-wrenching yet beautiful story of these oh so real people. I have now a deeper understanding of slavery, and of loyalty. I listened twice and loved your voice. This is now on my list of favorites.

Only Morrison's hypnotic voice would do...

What made the experience of listening to A Mercy the most enjoyable?

Morrison's command of voice, tone and timing is matched only by the compelling characters she so completely brings to life.

What did you like best about this story?

Genius to locate these characters in pre-America...imagining life before the colonies seems to give context to what came later...extraordinary.

Which character – as performed by Toni Morrison – was your favorite?

Sorrow!

If you could rename A Mercy, what would you call it?

Why rename it?

Masterfully narrated by its artful author

Incredibly beautiful, full of memorable scenes, colours, scents. Morrison encapsulates time and redesigns history with such passion that imagination flies away.
Múltiple narrators take turns to tell a story beyond themselves, a story that is about their lives but also about other people's lives. A daughter who can not forget abandonment and finds in devoted love a way out of her sadness, a mother who can not imagine a better world for her children and gives her daughter away to save her, a man whose home should tell the story of his sacrifice, a woman whose promised family abandons her too soon, a little girl who learns to love when she becomes a mother, a native woman who resists death and struggles for a future away from her own people, a man with healing powers who can save others but not his love. These characters sound profound, deeply human and notoriously kind. They fight a battle against disease, weather and the unkown. Above all, they fight for survival in a complex land, a territory that is vast and scattered with several different beliefs. Individually they are only orphans, astrays, solitary people; together they are capable of more, but to provenientes their worth they will hace to make huge sacrifice. A Mercy is a story about love, dignity and immense possibilities; it cherishes life and honors human bonds.

Oh, this book

Toni Morrison is one of my favorite authors. This story is stream of consciousness, poetry, beauty, horror, longing and sorrow. The characters have stayed with me. I was engaged and interested every moment. I truly loved this book.

Exquisite

Toni Morrison's language is exquisite; her characters heart-wrenching and her theme of betrayal universal. The interview with Ms. Morrison that follows the book is fascinating as she describes her exhaustive reasearch and personal motivation to write A Mercy. This is a book that will stay with me, read by one the world's great authors.

Let Toni's Voice and Story Carry You Away!

This book is a treasure, Great Literature, a thought-provoking three listens! It had a strange effect on me with Ms. Morrison's soft voice just taking me to that other place. Mind you, I was only knitting -- not driving a big-rig or watching little kids! I think someone driving would have difficulty listening to this because of the delicacy of the reading. That aside, yes, the book takes more than one listen to get the characters straight and begin to think about the whole thing. Don't anybody listen down to this black author! She is world class educated! This is so much more than a real grown-up chapter book to enthrall dipsticks who barely squeaked through high school! She has chosen every word carefully. Some intellectual authors enjoy writing puzzles diabolically intended to confuse. Not this author nor this book!. . . I had not thought of work situations being so fluid as they are in this book. There are jobs to be done, and many approaches. What we have is a small farm which needs to be kept up and many jobs done daily to make it produce. Who pulls weeds? Who milks the cow? Who starts the supper? These are all basically good people just trying to make their lives work. White indentured servants were also slaves in that their length of service could stretch for decades past the agreed time. They were out in the country with nobody to complain to. Half-grown girls and young women of all races were exploited, sheltered, helped and taught useful job skills. Oh, and given religious training which supplemented their tribal beliefs and psychotic delusions. The women in the story are white, Native American, black African, half black half white. There are pregnancies, burials, illnesses. Sometimes one character is pregnant and much later another character mentions the baby dying or else toddling about. . . . The free black blacksmith is fascinating -- a tall, confident man who knows how to do things! He knows folk medicine as well as true artistry with wrought iron. Prince Charming! A savior! I noticed recently that a sewing pattern company has come out with a long princess-cut coat with big lapels -- for men! In 1970's San Francisco, certain black men wore such coats with boots and hats trimmed with silver studs -- oh, my! The allure! But his devotion lies with no woman. . . . I enjoyed the scene in which a gay slave couple help another slave deliver her baby. Very nice, and as gay people are a percentage of any population . . . But enough! Get the book!