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A review by betweenbookends
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
4.0
4.5/5
What a stunning, compelling and remarkably well-written novel! Based on true historical events, a sudden freak storm of mythic proportions killed 40 fishermen off the coast of a remote village of Vardo in 1617, leaving the women to fend for themselves. What followed was the brutal, and senseless massacre of many indigenous Sami women believed to be witches. The Mercies fictionalizes and brings to life this tumultuous period of flux in Norway and Denmark under the reign of King Christian IV through an insular narrative following the women of this remote island of Vardo. The prose is gorgeously cinematic and transportive, completely placing you in its setting of 1617, Norway. It's a mesmerizing evocation of a small community and the land they inhabit, of prejudices that run deep and force people to turn in on one another to save themselves. It also portrays a gentle, deep, forbidden love between two characters that fill you with a sense of hope against this backdrop of dread. It is easily one of the most skilled, tense and atmospheric historical fiction novels I've read in the recent times.
What a stunning, compelling and remarkably well-written novel! Based on true historical events, a sudden freak storm of mythic proportions killed 40 fishermen off the coast of a remote village of Vardo in 1617, leaving the women to fend for themselves. What followed was the brutal, and senseless massacre of many indigenous Sami women believed to be witches. The Mercies fictionalizes and brings to life this tumultuous period of flux in Norway and Denmark under the reign of King Christian IV through an insular narrative following the women of this remote island of Vardo. The prose is gorgeously cinematic and transportive, completely placing you in its setting of 1617, Norway. It's a mesmerizing evocation of a small community and the land they inhabit, of prejudices that run deep and force people to turn in on one another to save themselves. It also portrays a gentle, deep, forbidden love between two characters that fill you with a sense of hope against this backdrop of dread. It is easily one of the most skilled, tense and atmospheric historical fiction novels I've read in the recent times.