The Mercies

De: Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Narrado por: Jessie Buckley

The bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club pick and BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick.

For readers of Circe and The Handmaid’s Tale, Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Mercies is inspired by real historical events – a story about the strength and courage of women.

‘Dark, dramatic and full of danger’ - Daily Mail

The storm comes in like a finger snap . . .
1617. The sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø is thrown into a vicious storm. A young woman, Maren, watches as the men of the island, out fishing, perish in an instant.

Vardø is now a place of women . . .
Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet has been summoned to bring the women of the island to heel. With him travels his young wife, Ursa. In her new home, and in Maren, Ursa encounters something she has never seen before: independent women. But where Ursa finds happiness, even love, Absalom sees only a place flooded with a terrible evil, one he must root out at all costs . . .

A story about how suspicion can twist its way through a community, about a love that could prove as dangerous as it is powerful.

‘Gripping’ - Madeline Miller, author of Circe
‘Took my breath away’ - Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring
‘A beautifully intimate story of friendship, love and hope’ - Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain
‘Something rare and beautiful’ - Marian Keyes, author of Again, Rachel
‘Chilling and page-turning’ - The Times

©2020 Kiran Millwood Hargrave (P)2020 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd

The Mercies

Lyrical language and a brilliant telling kept me engrossed till the end. Organised religion’s penchant for damning and accusing people of witchcraft and sorcery has always fascinated. Kiran Millwood Hargrave weaves a spell of her own, her language superlative, her characters strongly defined. Highly recommend.

"Clawth"

"Clawth"
That's how the narrator Jessie Buckley pronounces the word cloth. Which seems insignificant, except when it's uttered about every 30 seconds. The narrator's weird mis-pronounciations and "Norwegian" accent only make this rather turgid book more unenjoyable.
The subject of witch trials in a wildly remote part of Scandinavia is darkly fascinating but I think there’s deeper understanding of this to be gained from the Zumthor/Bourgeois installation at the site of the trials than from this novel. To say there are a number of plot-holes is putting it mildly, overall this just feels turgid, and after not much happening for the first 150 pages, it then lurches awkwardly towards an ending that feels both lazy and melodramatic.