Mercies

In seventeenth-century northern Norway, a ship arrives carrying survivors of a catastrophe at sea. Among them is Absalom Cornet, a Scottish witch-hunter, and Maren Magnusdotter, one of the few women to have survived the storm that killed almost every man in her village. As winter closes in and Absalom’s wife Ursa arrives to join her husband, the three are drawn into a triangle of desire, power, and accusation that will determine all their fates.

Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s Mercies is a historical novel of extraordinary atmospheric power — a book that renders the darkness and cold of its Arctic setting with such precision that you feel it in your body, and that places at its centre a relationship between two women so carefully observed that it feels entirely modern despite its seventeenth-century frame.

Shortlisted for multiple prizes and praised by readers and critics alike for its depth, its compassion, and the quiet power of its prose. A novel that stays with you long after the final page. Published by Picador.