A Mercy
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The acclaimed Nobel Prize winner reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the story of a mother and a daughter—a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
“Spellbinding. . . . Dazzling. . . . [A Mercy] stands alongside Beloved as a unique triumph.” —The Washington Post Book World
In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in “flesh,” he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
“Spellbinding. . . . Dazzling. . . . [A Mercy] stands alongside Beloved as a unique triumph.” —The Washington Post Book World
In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in “flesh,” he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.
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Community Reviews
I wanted to like it, but I just didn't care for it. I usually like stream of consciousness writing style, but it didn't work for me here.
What's better than reading a Toni Morrison novel? Having her read one to you! I listened to this novel, read by the author, which included an interview with the author at the end. I confess, I lost the thread of the story a couple of times, just savoring the language and images presented. This was a story of love and betrayal, of connections among people thrown together arbitrarily. Each has a tale to tell and Morrison gives us a view into each character individually, complete with their history and patterns of connection.
The narrator's voice changes frequently through the novel - providing insight into each character, not just the primaries: Lina, Sorrow, Florens, Rebecca, jacob, Florens' mother. Will...each narrates his/her view of the unfolding tale.
The narrator's voice changes frequently through the novel - providing insight into each character, not just the primaries: Lina, Sorrow, Florens, Rebecca, jacob, Florens' mother. Will...each narrates his/her view of the unfolding tale.
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