BOOKS FROM ENGLANDThe Mercies
Tags:
Set in Norway
Female author
Description:
A gripping novel inspired by a real-life witch hunt . . . Beautiful and chilling' Madeline Miller, author of CirceOn Christmas Eve, 1617, the sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø is thrown into a reckless storm. As Maren Magnusdatter watches, forty fishermen, including her father and brother, are lost to the waves, the menfolk of Vardø wiped out in an instant. Now the women must fend for themselves. Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Summoned from Scotland to take control of a place at the edge of the civilized world, Absalom Cornet knows what he needs to do to bring the women of Vardø to heel. With him travels his young wife, Ursa. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa finds something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God and flooded with a mighty and terrible evil, one he must root out at all costs. Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1621 witch trials, Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Mercies is a story about how suspicion can twist its way through a community, and a love that may prove as dangerous as it is powerful.
Reviews:
(5 months ago) |
24 Apr, 2025
Interesting book set in the dark middle ages. Yes, it has "witches" and inquisition. Context is based on real historical fact. Giving 3 stars because I feel the book finished before the action actually started, it could have been more, main theme could have been developed more. The ending came too quickly, too abrupt. But I do recommend reading it.
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