Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Mercies

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

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £11.99

Buy Now for £11.99

Pay using card ending in
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.

Summary

The bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club pick and BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick.

For readers of Circe and The Handmaid’s Tale, Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Mercies is inspired by real historical events – a story about the strength and courage of women.

‘Dark, dramatic and
full of danger’ - Daily Mail

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.

Gripping - Madeline Miller, author of Circe
Took my breath away’ - Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring
‘A beautifully intimate story of friendship, love and hope’ - Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain
‘Something rare and beautiful’ - Marian Keyes, author of Again, Rachel
‘Chilling and page-turning’
- The Times

©2020 Kiran Millwood Hargrave (P)2020 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

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.

What listeners say about The Mercies

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    407
  • 4 Stars
    167
  • 3 Stars
    63
  • 2 Stars
    15
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    438
  • 4 Stars
    113
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    353
  • 4 Stars
    145
  • 3 Stars
    66
  • 2 Stars
    12
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow.

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Atmospheric and beautifully written

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

enjoyed it

It was a great book. I would recommend it. Enjoyable and capturing read. Quite a slow recording though I listened at the increasing speed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Immersed in the characters and story!

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Stunning

An incredible book - so well written and performed. It will definitely stay with me for a long time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Mesmerizing

The tale is beautifully told. The narrator masters the Norwegian prononciation of place names and characters which is crucial.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wicked Witches were invented by frightened men

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.





Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved this,

Just brilliant and evocative, beautifully written and read, stunning! Highly recommend this as a work of art in writing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

a Modern Classic

Highly recommend. Based on historical events. Truly brilliant. Both enlightening & relevant in regards to society throughout the ages.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!