In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.
Jacob 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, ¿with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady.¿ Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master¿s house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.
There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who¿s spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens¿ mother.
A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
Acts of mercy may have unforeseen consequences.
In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.
Jacob 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, ¿with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady.¿ Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master¿s house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.
There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who¿s spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens¿ mother.
A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
Acts of mercy may have unforeseen consequences.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171785758 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 11/15/2019 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Related Subjects
- Fiction
- Literature
- Awards
- American Fiction
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Peoples & Cultures - Fiction
- Fiction Subjects
- 21st Century American Fiction
- African Americans - Fiction & Literature
- Historical Fiction
- Literary Fiction
- Politics & Social Issues - Fiction
- African Americans - Historical Fiction
- Colonial Americas - Historical Fiction
- Literary Fiction - Other
- Slavery - Fiction
- Soils->Scotland->Girvan region
- Barnes&Noble.com Favorite Haunting Historicals of 2008
- Books by Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates->1991-2000
- Christian Science Monitor's Best Novels of 2008
- Los Angeles Times Favorite Fiction & Poetry of 2008
- New York Times 10 Best Books of 2008
- New York Times Notable Fiction & Poetry of 2008
- San Francisco Chronicle's Best Fiction & Poetry of 2008
- Seattle Times Best Fiction of 2008
- Village Voice Best Books of 2008
- Washington Post 10 Best Books of 2008
Videos
