'Something rare and beautiful' - Marian Keyes 'A beautifully intimate story of friendship, love and hope' - Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain ' Took my breath away ' - Tracy Chevalier It is a story about how suspicion can twist its way through a community, about a love that could prove as dangerous as it is powerful. įor readers of Circe and The Handmaid's Tale, Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Mercies is inspired by real historical events.
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. In her new home, and in Maren, Ursa encounters something she has never seen before: independent women. Absalom Cornet has been summoned to bring the women of the island to heel. A young woman, Maren, watches as the men of the island, out fishing, perish in an instant.Įighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives.
The sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø is thrown into a vicious storm. ' Dark, dramatic and full of danger' - Daily Mail The Sunday Times Bestseller and BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick (Feb.The bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club pick Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit Associates. Hargraves’s tale offers a feminist take on a horrific moment in history with its focus on the subjugation of women, superstition in isolated locations, and brutality in the name of religion. Eventually, Cornet arrests two local widows, tortures and burns them at the stake, then comes to arrest Maren, while Maren and Ursa turn to each other for affection and support. Encouraged by the feudal lord who brought him to Vardø, Cornet seeks out nonchurchgoers in a crusade against evil that puts Diinna and other Sámis at risk. Their friendship grows, as does Ursa’s fear of her husband, an enthusiastic participant in the branding, strangling, and burning of suspected witches. Unused to such meager conditions, Ursa hires Maren to help her with household chores. That changes with the arrival of noted witch-hunter Commissioner Absalom Cornet, who comes from Scotland with his Norwegian wife, Ursa, to root out nonbelievers.
Maren Magnusdatter, age 20, having lost her father, brother, and fiancé in the storm, lives quietly in Vardø with her mother and sister-in-law Diinna, of the Sámi people. This dark, dramatic historical from Hargrave ( The Girl of Ink & Stars) begins on Christmas Eve 1617 when 40 men from Norway’s remote island settlement of Vardø die in a storm at sea, setting in motion events that lead to witch trials and executions.
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