The Mercies cover art

The Mercies

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Mercies

By: Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Narrated by: Jessie Buckley
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £11.99

Buy Now for £11.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

The Mercies: A gripping tale of love, suspicion, and the strength of women in the face of adversity, inspired by real events.

1617. A vicious storm throws the sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø into chaos. Maren watches helplessly as the island's men, out fishing, perish in an instant. Vardø is now a place of women.

Eighteen months later, Absalom Cornet arrives, determined to bring the island's independent women to heel. Accompanying him is his young wife, Ursa. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa discovers something she's never encountered before: the strength and resilience of women left to forge their own path.

While Ursa finds unexpected happiness and even love in her new home, Absalom sees only a community corrupted by a terrible evil that he must root out at any cost.

The Mercies is a mesmerizing tale of love, fear, and the potential for both to transform a community. Kiran Millwood Hargrave weaves a rich tapestry of historical detail and poignant insights into the hearts of her unforgettable characters.

Perfect for fans of Circe and The Handmaid's Tale, this haunting and atmospheric novel will linger long after the final word.

©2020 Kiran Millwood Hargrave (P)2020 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Paranormal Romance Sea Adventures Adventure Heartfelt Tear-jerking

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Deathless Girls cover art
Follow the Dove cover art
The Light on Farallon Island cover art
All the Murmuring Bones cover art
Into the Wilderness cover art
Burial Rites cover art
The Year of Ancient Ghosts cover art
New Spring cover art
Virgins cover art
Into the Wilderness cover art
Backwards to Oregon cover art
The Nature of Fragile Things cover art
The Last Summer cover art
Where the Lost Wander cover art
Seven Summer Nights cover art
Mrs. Wiggins cover art

Featured article: Witches in fiction: 12 historical fiction books to listen to this Halloween


Throughout history, women have been branded as witches by people scared of their power, confidence and independence. In days past, accusations of being a witch – thrown at women for everything from being talented at working with herbs to being in the vicinity of a death – could result in banishment or even death. These 12 audiobooks, perfect for the longer nights, colder weather and the Halloween season, tell the stories of women through history, from goddesses to regular women, through a mix of horror, fantasy and historical fiction.

Featured article Witches in fiction: 12 historical fiction books to listen to this Halloween
All stars
Most relevant  
This book continues a tradition that dictates I am yet to meet a Kiran Millwood-Hargrave book I haven’t liked.
This is the second novel for adults by her I have read and I thought The Deathless Girls was tremendous.
However, this is very much a deviation from my usual genre of reading; historical fiction isn’t something I would usually choose, but I am glad I did.
A slow start, that left a little confused and uncertain was followed by a development of characters that it becomes impossible not to connect with - their rollercoaster of relationships, passions, fears, nightmares and forbidden love as wonderfully expressed, never being gratuitous nor underplayed - in short, it is written exquisitely.
100% recommended.

Wow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved the performance of the reader. I really enjoyed her voice and thought it was very fitting for the story.

I really enjoyed the book and found myself more and more invested as time went on. Great characterisation and I felt very enveloped in the setting of the story.

Atmospheric and beautifully written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brutal in the truth but beautifully written and delivered. A story that shocks and shames; born by ignorance, superstition and spite.

Mercy me!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The tale is beautifully told. The narrator masters the Norwegian prononciation of place names and characters which is crucial.

Mesmerizing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A compelling story and an uncomfortable one.

A story that takes us back to the Burning Times; when many thousands of women (and fewer men) were burned at the stake after suffering torture because of the over-inflated self-importance and arrogance of some men and because of religion which also assumed superiority over the indigenous beliefs. How many deeds of evil were enacted and continue to happen in the name of a 'benevolent and loving' God.

The women in this story are strong and capable, enduring the hardships of life on an island in the arctic and, following the legendary storm which took their menfolk, fending for themselves and staying alive.

The men are despicable and sadistic, indulging in marital rape and taking sadistic, almost sexual pleasure in the torture and murder of women who they assume are inferior to them despite evidence to the contrary, or who are weak and ineffectual in not standing up to those perceived to hold more power and the sanction of the state, such as the spineless minister who far from protecting his flock, stood by and did nothing. The arrogance and assumed superiority and attitude of entitlement of the white men in this story are astounding but not surprising as we still see evidence of this attitude today.

Racial supremacy of the white man (as ever) also plays a role in this tale, paradoxically portraying them as superior to the Laps as well as the women, despite their ignorance on many matters which would help them survive.

This review is not intended to put you off this book, it's a powerful story and yes, it is uncomfortable at times, the execution scene had me in tears for the character and for the real women who shared her fate in this country and abroad.

An education and well worth reading or listening to.





Wicked Witches were invented by frightened men

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just brilliant and evocative, beautifully written and read, stunning! Highly recommend this as a work of art in writing

Loved this,

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was a great book. I would recommend it. Enjoyable and capturing read. Quite a slow recording though I listened at the increasing speed.

enjoyed it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was sucked into the characters, the town, the story. Performed wonderfully and it was so enchanting I finished it in two days (which is very quick for me).
I had read similar books from this period and place and this one far surpassed in its readability and insight into the people living in the town and the day to day culture.
Superb.

Immersed in the characters and story!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An incredible book - so well written and performed. It will definitely stay with me for a long time.

Stunning

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Chosen by my book club and not a book I would lean towards by choice, but wow, what a book. Beautifully written and such carefully crafted chapters. Audible makes it even more enjoyable and gives the story a raw edge of how life was so incredibly hard and cruel all those years ago. Highly recommend.

Wonderful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews