They fish, hunt, and butcher reindeer-which they never did while the men were alive. Beautiful and chilling' (Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe).įor the women left behind, survival means defying the strict rules of the island. PublishDate T00:00:00-05:00 publishDateText mediaType eBook shortDescription 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. The Mercies is her debut novel for adults. She holds degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and lives by the river in Oxford. Her second book, The Island at the End of Everything, received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and VOYA. Her debut book, The Girl of Ink & Stars, won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and British Children's Book of the Year. bioText: Kiran Millwood Hargrave is a British author, poet, and playwright.OverDrive Product Record sortTitle Mercies crossRefId 4825982 images A haunting ode to self-reliant and quietly defiant women.' (Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize winning author of Shuggie Bain) It's a beautifully intimate story of friendship, love and hope.

It totally swept me away to Vardø, where grief struck islanders stand tall in the shadow of religious persecution and witch burnings. ' The Mercies has a pull as sure as the tide. Cornet brings with him the threat of danger-and a pretty, young Norwegian wife named Ursa.Īs 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. 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. 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.įor the women left behind, survival means defying the strict rules of the island. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the skies break into a sudden and reckless storm. When the women take over, is it sorcery or power?įinnmark, Norway, 1617. Beautiful and chilling' (Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe). 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.

The mercies book