Should the women be fishing even though it’s man’s work? How important is it to display your Christian religion and shut out native religions? Can they trust certain women in the group? A large issue here is based in racism against Maren’s sister-in-law, Diinna, a Sámi woman. We see a divide growing among the women over a number of issues. But by part two, the action gains speed and interest. The first part of The Mercies moves slowly, building up the setting and the characters bit by bit. Her own family was once wealthy, and she sadly must leave behind her sickly sister and grieving father.

Ursula – Ursa for short – is naive and knows little of her new husband or how to keep a house. Absalom is in need of a wife, so he marries a young woman from Bergen, a large city in the more heavily populated southwestern end of Norway. They are then sent a commissioner, Absalom Cornet, to help keep the women in line. The women are not completely isolated, and eventually a pastor and a Lensmann are installed there. Our first main character, Maren, joins forces with a leaderly woman named Kirsten, much to the chagrin of her own mother and the more religious and conservative women in the community. The women are suddenly left alone to rebuild their lives. But they don’t make it far out to sea before their mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters watch in horror as a storm overtakes them and drowns them all. It’s Christmas Eve when nearly all the men of a small island community board a ship. The Mercies takes us to Vardø, a town in the north-easternmost part of Norway: past Finland, north of Russia, and well within the Arctic circle. I bought it upon its publication in February. Its shocking plot – and that it’s based on real historical events – sealed the deal.

Its simple but evocative cover captured my interest, and learning that it was set in Norway made it even more appealing. One day in January, I discovered an upcoming novel called The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. I’ve read novels set in places as far apart as Ecuador, Nigeria, and Japan, but there are still so many countries I’ve never visited – in real life or even in my books. I have a goal for myself this year to travel more of the world through the books I read.

The mercies novel