Book guide
The Mercies
On a remote 17th-century Norwegian island emptied of men by a sudden storm, two women find dangerous love as fear and suspicion tighten their grip on the community.
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About The Mercies
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.
Reading signals
- Spice
- Light
- Darkness
- Dark
- Pacing
- Slow
Content warnings
- death
- grief
- persecution
- witch persecution
- animal death
- blood
- childbirth
- fire
- murder
- racism
- rape
- sexism
- suicidal ideation
- torture
- miscarriage
- drowning
- religious persecution
- colonialism
- domestic abuse
- homophobia
- sexual content
