A Mercy

A Mercy

Toni Morrison’s latest is another astounding tour de force, a quick, lightning-paced read that returns to all the Nobel Prize winner’s hallmark themes. Set at the close of the 17th century, A Mercy unfolds at the center of America’s shaky foundations, and imagines the plight of indentured workers, slaves and Native Americans. Told from shifting points of view, Morrison’s tale begins when a plantation slave offers up her daughter to Jacob, an Anglo-Dutch trader, as a debt payment. The action spawns a variety of conflicting desires in the women who inhabit Jacob’s farm. His wife struggles to keep her faith in God as she falls victim to religious intolerance back in England. Lina, a Native servant, wants the child’s love to replace the family she's lost through a smallpox outbreak. The slave girl, Florens, searches desperately for approval—first from Lina, and then from a handsome African blacksmith. When Jacob winds up falling ill, the women feel their livelihoods further threatened.... A haunting look at the emotional consequences of slavery and abandonment, Morrison’s masterfully told tale casts a spell on the reader that is not broken until long after the story’s heart-wrenching conclusion.

Softcover: 176 pages

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc./Random House ( November 11, 2008 )

Item #: 03-6942

ISBN: 9781615230853

Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 0.4 inches

Product Weight: 6.0 ounces