Mercy

'A beautiful and important book' The Times

On the day that Jacob, an Anglo-Dutch trader, agrees to accept a slave in lieu of payment for a debt from a plantation owner, little Florens's life changes irrevocably.

With her keen intelligence and passion for wearing the cast-off shoes of her mistress, Florens has never blurred into the background and now at the age of eight she is uprooted from her family to begin a new life with a new master. She ends up part of Jacob's household, along with his wife Rebekka, Lina their Native American servant, and the enigmatic Sorrow who was rescued from a shipwreck.

Together these women face the trials of their harsh environment as Jacob attempts to carve out a place for himself in the brutally unforgiving landscape of North America in the seventeenth century.

'Toni Morrison is the greatest chronicler of the American experience that we have ever known' Tayari Jones, New York Times

BY THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF BELOVED

Winner of the PEN/Saul Bellow award for achievement in American fiction

Review: Toni Morrison makes me believe in God. She makes me believe in a divine being, because luck and genetics don't seem to come close to explaining her * Guardian *
A beautiful and important book * The Times *
Powerful, elemental... The issues Morrison explores go to the root of what humanity is. They could not be more important * Guardian *
Left me trembling at the sheer brilliance of its storytelling and the unassailable dignity of its purpose * Evening Standard *
So enthralling that you'll want to read it more than once * Sunday Times *
Varied and authoritative and frequently beautiful * New Yorker *
An enduring, evocative read which carefully weaves fragmented, personal experiences into a layered, ambivalent narrative about slavery and the price of freedom * Irish Times *
Morrison is at the very height of her powers * Daily Mail *
For all its restraint, and its sinister stealth, A Mercy is a furious novel, a volley of anger, contempt and sorrow... the rich and seemingly casual evocative accretion of background and narrative slowly tightens its grip until the reader is utterly in thrall * Herald *
Emotions run deep and twisted in Morrison's fiction; and their outcome is superbly traced in this powerful, flawed and genuinely creative novel * Sunday Telegraph *