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The Mercies Kindle Edition

by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 5,523 ratings

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The women in an Arctic village must survive a sinister threat after all the men are wiped out by a catastrophic storm in this "gripping novel inspired by a real-life witch hunt. . . . Beautiful and chilling" (Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe).

When the women take over, is it sorcery or power?

Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the skies break into a sudden and reckless storm. All forty of the village’s men were at sea, including Maren’s father and brother, and all forty are drowned in the otherworldly disaster.

For the women left behind, survival means defying the strict rules of the island. They fish, hunt, and butcher reindeer—which they never did while the men were alive. But the foundation of this new feminine frontier begins to crack with the arrival of Absalom Cornet, a man sent from Scotland to root out alleged witchcraft. Cornet brings with him the threat of danger—and a pretty, young Norwegian wife named Ursa.

As Maren and Ursa are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them, with Absalom's iron rule threatening Vardø's very existence.

"The Mercies has a pull as sure as the tide. It totally swept me away to Vardø, where grief struck islanders stand tall in the shadow of religious persecution and witch burnings. It's a beautifully intimate story of friendship, love and hope. A haunting ode to self-reliant and quietly defiant women." (Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize winning author of Shuggie Bain)

From the Publisher

Norway Sweden witch trials Finland finmark Scandinavia whaling fishing village

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of February 2020: It’s 1617 and there isn’t much that is not unforgiving when it comes to the far-flung and frigid town of Vardø, Norway, including the sea that surrounds it, which swallows the majority of its male population in an epic storm while they’re out fishing. The women are forced to fend for themselves or starve, but in a world where gender roles are prescribed and biblical patriarchy reigns, starving would be more acceptable than doing the “men’s work” necessary to survive. For the few that deem this option impractical, the fact that they are able to do so with relative ease means that witchcraft must be involved! And the pious are only too willing to bite the hands that are feeding them, and cooperate with the man recruited to restore the natural order of things. It’s a good thing Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Mercies is so beautifully written, it balances the brutality of what unfolds, but doesn’t blunt the impact of a cautionary tale that is surprisingly relevant for its historical setting. A page-turner that is infuriating, baleful, but full of stubborn hope, you won’t cry mercy before finishing it. —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Book Review

Review

"A beautifully rendered portrait of a community, a landscape, and a relationship. I read it with equal parts hope and dread."

-- "Tracy Chevalier, New York Times bestselling author"

"A novel for our times with artistry and skill. Maren's story is powerful, at turns, it is disturbing, and ultimately illuminating. You will ponder it long after you finish this magnificent work."

-- "Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author"

"In clean, gripping sentences the author is wonderfully tuned to the ways and gestures of a seemingly taciturn people...This chilling tale of religious persecution is served up with a feminist bite."

-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"

"This one has all the most delicious ingredients--witches, the Arctic, and the disappearance of men...Millwood Hargrave's story turns on an unlikely female friendship forged in the icy climate of a witch trial."

-- "Glamour"

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07SGQ8M32
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company (February 11, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 11, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3662 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 338 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1529075076

Best Sellers Rank: #189,614 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #93 in LGBTQ+ Historical Fiction (Books)
- #158 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #842 in Friendship Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 5,523 ratings

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Kiran Millwood Hargrave

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Kiran Millwood Hargrave is an award-winning writer whose work has been translated into over 30 languages and optioned for stage and screen. In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen is the first in her Geomancer Trilogy, an epic fantasy series.

Between them, her children's books have won numerous awards including the Wainwright Prize, Children's Book of the Year at the British Book Awards, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Historical Association Young Quills Award, and the Blackwell's Children's Book of the Year. They have been shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize, the Barnes and Noble Award, Jhalak Prize, the Little Rebels Prize, the Branford Boase Award, the Blue Peter Best Story Award, Costa Children's Book Prize, Foyles' Children's Book of the Year, and thrice-longlisted for the Carnegie Award.

Her debut adult novel The Mercies debuted at number one of the The Times bestseller list, was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club and the Richard and Judy Summer Reads. It was a finalist for the prestigious Prix Femina in France, won a Betty Trask Award, and was called 'unquestionably the book of the 2018 London Book Fair' by The Bookseller. The Dance Tree was shortlisted for the HWA Gold Crown Award and picked for the BBC Two Between Two Covers Book Club.

Kiran lives in Oxford with her husband the artist Tom de Freston, their daughter, and their rescue cats, Luna and Marly.

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Kindle Customer

Story of the power of friendship and female struggles for agency.

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2023

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This is a well written story. Though set in Norway, it deals with female friendships and issues of agency that are timeless and boundaryless.

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Maria Paola Quintero

Great story, difficult writing style

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2021

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I don't even know where to start. This book was amazing, I loved it and I got all the feelings while reading it. Especially rage. The story is strong, upsetting and, unfortunately, based on historical events (witch trials in Finmark, the persecution of the Sámi people and so on). Also, I don't agree with those saying that it is pushing a modern thing into a historical novel. Flash news: homosexuality has always been present throughout history, the big difference resides in whether it has been socially accepted or not. So, I did love how the author included the lesbian story. I felt it was included in a natural and appropriate way.

The only thing that stops me from rating this as a 5-stars is the writing style. I felt it was very difficult sometimes to follow up the story, and I found it hard to understand in the beginning.

11 people found this helpful

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Deanne

A new favorite!

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2020

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THE MERCIES. Wow. What a book. And inspired by true events: In Finnmark, Norway, 1617, a storm hits the small fishing town of Vardø, and all the men in the town are killed at sea. The women in the town pull together to grieve and survive, until 3 years later, when the newly appointed Commisioner Absalom Cornet breaks into the solidarity of the women and arrives to install religious order to the community. Then begins a real-life witch hunt.

The story follows Ursa, Absalom’s troubled wife, and Maren. Ursa moves to Vardø; Maren was born there. The writing is gorgeous, lyrical, the relationships between the women, especially Ursa and Maren, are beautifully drawn. Learning about life in this small Arctic town was both fascinating and disturbing. I was there feeling the cold, filth, poverty, strength, and loneliness of these women. But it’s not an easy book to read. The author pulls no punches when describing the tragedies of gathering the dead from the sea to the days of the witch trials. Despite losing their husbands and sons, the women got it together, and it’s infuriating how the men responded from far and wide! Because men didn’t trust the women’s strength, and didn’t trust that the men were killed by a freak storm, they swooped in and went looking for witches. You must be a witch if you can learn to sail a boat and fish to survive! This is a new book, published in February, that explores feminism, patriarchy, and religion in a world gone mad—themes we continue to encounter today. I hope it doesn’t become a movie.

47 people found this helpful

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Tara

Based in some facts

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2021

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After a violent storm kills the men of Vardø while out to sea fishing, the women of the island now find the power to fend for themselves.

A Scottish man, Absalom, and his Norwegian wife, Ursa, are summoned to stay at the island to assist the woman with guidance and a man’s presence (I guess)🙄.

Absalom is convinced this island is not full of women who found strength to move on but the work of sorcery and witchcraft.

Apparently this story is based off the 1621 Witch Trials of Vardø (true story). The language can be difficult to understand but once you have footing in the story is not bad.

“This story is about people, and how they lived; before why and how they died became what defined them.”

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Slow but steady

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2022

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The book started off slow but towards the end, it got a lot better. I was expecting it to be more of a forbideen love story between two women but it wasn't. I was also expecting it to be more about the Witch trials. All in all, it was a pretty good book and worth the read.

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LR Frayer

Transports you to the 1600s.

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2020

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Let go and be a part of a society that doesn’t value women. Read how women asserted themselves in the midst of sexism and misogyny, where they absolutely had no power. The author’s explanation of every day struggles to survive is outstandingly specific, detailed but not intrusive to the flow of her story. Her characters ring true in a rather wild plot. Much unfolds for women who challenge authority, as always. Liked it and look forward to reading her other efforts

4 people found this helpful

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ATD

Intense and captivating

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2022

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The landscape is vividly captured and the characters are deep and intimate. It is hard to put down even late into the night.

2 people found this helpful

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Viewer

Historical Fiction gone awry

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2021

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If there were 1/2 stars I would give it a 3.5, so upped to to a 4. This is very loosely based on an actual event that happened in the early 1600's in a very remote village in the northern most part of Norway. When a freak storm wipes out the majority of men, the remaining women have to learn to fend for themselves, including a few Sami practices. A minister arrives and shortly after, his new sidekick, and before long a witch hunt begins. I was highly invested in the characters and their interactions with each other, including their daily lives and survival tactics. I wanted more. A lot more. I wanted to know about this village before the main character arrived. I wanted to know what happened to everyone afterwards.

That being said, the story oddly, and for no reason explained, turns into a Lesbian boiler. Why throw something like that into this story? Just to make it politically correct? There was so much that could have been unfolded in the storyline, much more detail, more about the Sami people, customs, everyday life, the characters interactions and backgrounds. I was truly invested in the story and sadly let down at the end, which felt ridiculously empty and predictable.

21 people found this helpful

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Alison Clarke

Brilliant book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 21, 2024

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I couldn’t put this book down. It was absolutely gripping. The writing is superb. The development of the plot kept me hooked.

One person found this helpful

Reading_Tamishly

This is one sad story with two very strong women leads

Reviewed in India on February 15, 2023

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Saddest read of 2023 🥹
Am trying not to think too much about it but I know I will.

Two women. Two very different women. One coming from the belief that women must let their husbands do or say whatever they want and they must endure/serve them silently.

The other woman who has endured much but who knows how the world treats women and what she must do to protect her own tribe.

I am quite surprised with this book! I wonder how come this book is so underrated. I do feel this book needs to be read and reread.

The author has written these characters with utmost sincerity. The two main characters are well fletched out. Also, the one who’s responsible for their misery is written with such expertise that you hate-hate this character with all your being.

In this very atmospheric well written story, we are following two women who would eventually meet later.
Karen survives in an island where all men have disappeared.
Ursa lives her life under the tyranny of her husband Absalom.

Trigger warnings for repeated assaults.

It is their story and how connected they become once they meet. They are going to face the wrath of the community and the husband. However, the characters stand strong and the story does leave your heart broken. Read this book and cry your eyes out like I did!

I would say take your time while reading this book.

Selkis

Amazing story!

Reviewed in Germany on March 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

I was speechless after finishing this book, just sitting on my sofa staring into space. It's an amazing feeling when a book stays with you for a while, and it definitely warrants five stars.

The Mercies tells the story of an island in Norway in 1617. One dreadful day there is a horrible storm and all the men are killed in an instant. The women of the island of Vardo are left to fend for themselves. A couple of months later the new commissioner arrives with his unhappy young wife Ursa. He is a strong believer and seems to find a godless island while Ursa befriends the village woman Maren. Amidst his brutal war against witchcraft and sorcery, the two women find solace in each other's company.

It's a touching story, that's heartbreaking, cruel but also sweet. Maren had to see all the men of her village die, including her father, brother and betrothed. Ursa had to marry a stranger and leave her family forever. It's so nice to read about their friendship and their slowly developing friendship.

The other main topic is the struggle between Christianity and The Old Way. The religion and culture of the Sami, who are accused of witchcraft and frowned upon. Their position is dangerous, and it gets worse for all the women throughout the book.

There is so much in this book I like:
- historically accurate descriptions of real events
- lgbtq+ representation without being cringy
- the witchhunt
- the "old" religion
- a part of the world and/or time period I don't know much about

I could go on and on. I'm so glad I picked it up and would definitely recommend it to anybody who's interested in historical fiction or feminism.

2 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

exceptional

Reviewed in Australia on December 7, 2022

Verified Purchase

I have been to the memorial to the witch trials in Vardo in Norway and the place is haunting, as was this book. Kiran has brought to life what it must have been like at that time. Trying to survive on a day to day basis was hard enough without the loss of most of the men in the village, but then came the accusations and eventual witch trials. I loved this book which was so well written and would recommend this book very highly.

Tom

Unique and interesting!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

The Mercies is a very slow burn of a book. It starts off with the storm that sets the scene and from there it is one giant build up to the final quarter of the book that you won't be able to put down.
We see characters develop over the years and the attention to detail from the author allows us to understand the hardships that the women of Vardø endure and how these hardships cause people to change their ways and how the witch trials causes this to escalate tremendously.

The book has strong feminist values in a culture that doesn't accept even women wearing trousers, we have a forbidden love, and a constant struggle for survival. It is definitely worth a read, if not for the incredibly interesting story, then for the unique bit of history intertwined with an amazing storyteller to deliver it.

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