The Mercies

by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Paperback

When the women take over, is it sorcery or power? 

Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty year old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the skies break into a sudden and reckless storm. All forty of the village's men are at sea, including Maren's father and brother, and all forty are drowned in the otherworldly disaster. 

For the women left behind, survival means defying the strict rules of the island. They fish, hunt and butcher reindeer- which they never did while the men were alive. But the foundation of this mew feminine frontier begins to crack with the arrival of Absalom Cornet, a man sent from Scotland to root out alleged witchcraft. Cornet brings with him the threat of danger-and a pretty, young Norwegian wife named Ursa. 

As Maren and Ursa are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them, with Absalom's iron rule threatening its very existence.