The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Book Group Review: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Nine of us gathered to discuss The Mercies, as one member hadn’t quite finished the book, we took care to avoid spoilers. That didn’t stop our conversation from being as lively, thoughtful, and honest as always!

The novel centres on the lives of women in Vardø, a small fishing village in Northern Norway, in 1621. The community, already devastated by the loss of its menfolk in a storm, must contend with the arrival of the so-called ‘witch hunters’. The Mercies explores the horrifying real events that unfolded, telling a powerful story of resilience, injustice, and the strength of women.

At the heart of the narrative are two central characters: Maren, a local woman learning to survive in a world without men, and Ursa, the sheltered daughter of a merchant, brought to Vardø through marriage into a starkly different life. Their relationship becomes a poignant lens through which the reader experiences the events of the novel.

Our group had mixed reactions to the book.

One member stopped reading partway through, finding the subject matter too traumatic. We all respected this choice but agreed the book was worth finishing, as it faithfully reflects the real struggles and courage of women in history.

Although audiobooks are growing in popularity among us, we agreed that this particular story was best experienced through a physical copy. The descriptive writing made it easier to immerse ourselves in the setting and mood.

The story took some time to gather momentum as characters were introduced, but once it did, we found it absorbing. Reactions included:

“I couldn’t put it down.” and “It was compelling, though the cruelty was hard to bear.”

We all echoed this sentiment.

The ending proved disturbing and emotional. For some of the women, the outcome was horrific - they never stood a chance. While the story has elements of female empowerment, it also shows how easily male authority could intrude, disrupt, and destroy.

The novel is heartbreaking from the outset. Ursa’s father believes he is doing the best for her, while the captain, though kind, knows otherwise and is powerless to change her fate. One member described the book’s tone as building a “fear of dread,” reminiscent of a Joanne Harris novel.

Did the book portray women as victims? Some of us felt it didn’t. Rather, it showed their strength and heroism. A notable moment came when the Lensman’s wife said to Ursa, her Calvinist counterpart, “You must be so proud.”  We debated whether this was sincere or sarcastic, but didn’t reach a conclusion.

There was much less debate about the portrayal of the male characters. Most were roundly considered to be idiots, the captain being the main exception. We struggled to reconcile how men responsible for such horrors could claim to act in the name of God.

Members of our group who had visited Norway praised the description of the setting and said they could easily visualise the landscape. A recommendation was made to watch Simon Reeve’s travel documentary on Norway. Here’s the link for anyone interested:

🔗 Scandinavia with Simon Reeve – BBC iPlayer

Talk even turned to a possible group trip to Norway - specifically Bergen and Vardø! A bit of travel research revealed:

• Ferry from Bergen to Vardø: every 30 minutes, journey takes about 5 days and 7 hours
• Train from Bergen to Vardø (via Sweden and Finland): 3 days and 5 hours
• Flight from Bergen to Kirkenes (3h 15m), then ferry to Vardø (4h 20m)

My conclusion? Visiting Vardø is certainly doable - but not simple! The distance and multiple modes of transport make it a serious adventure, requiring careful planning and consideration of cost and time.

This all gave us greater appreciation for Ursa’s journey by sea in 1617 and highlighted just how isolated Vardø was, especially for the women left vulnerable to religious persecution.

For perspective: this is the overland route from Bergen to Vardø. Vardø is now marginally less isolated as it is joined to the mainland by a tunnel and a bridge. 

A fallback idea, if Norway proves too ambitious: the Edinburgh Museum was suggested as an alternative destination for exploring the history of witch trials closer to home.

Back to the book - some members felt the ending was sudden and didn’t quite match the slower pace of the rest of the novel. Was it a happy or sad ending? We won’t spoil it, but our interpretations were mixed.

As one member put it: “This is why I come to Book Group!”

Footnote: Several of us also read The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams and found it delightful. As a group, we’d already read many of the books it features and enjoyed revisiting them.

Would we recommend these books?

Yes - to both!

Next Meeting:

📖 The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

📍 The Ash Tree, Ashendon

🕗 Thursday, 24th July 2025, 8pm

Book Choices - May 2025

Our next meeting is at 8.00pm on Thursday, 22nd May 2025, at The Ash Tree in Ashendon. We will be discussing The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

Here are the book choices for our next book. 

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred, Lexington, who became America’s greatest stud sire, Horse is a gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America.

Kentucky, 1850

An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union.

On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamour of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954

Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019

Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse - one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success. 

The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

A journey on foot.

Robert Macfarlane travels Britain's ancient paths and discovers the secrets of our beautiful, underappreciated landscape.

Following the tracks, holloways, drove-roads and sea paths that form part of a vast ancient network of routes criss-crossing the British Isles and beyond, Robert Macfarlane discovers a lost world – a landscape of the feet and the mind, of pilgrimage and ritual, of stories and ghosts; above all, of the places and journeys which inspire and inhabit our imaginations. 

Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell

Brave, illuminating and inspiring, Somebody I Used to Know is the first memoir ever written by someone living with dementia. What do you lose when you lose your memories? What do you value when this loss reframes how you've lived, and how you will live in the future? How do you conceive of love when you can no longer recognise those who are supposed to mean the most to you?

When she was diagnosed with dementia at the age of fifty-eight, Wendy Mitchell was confronted with the most profound questions about life and identity. She had to say goodbye to the woman she used to be all at once. Her demanding career in the NHS, her ability to drive, cook and run - the various shades of her independence - were suddenly gone.

Philosophical, profoundly moving, insightful and ultimately full of hope, Somebody I Used to Know gets to the heart of what it means to be human. A phenomenal memoir - the first of its kind - it is both a heart-rending tribute to the woman Wendy once was, and a brave affirmation of the woman dementia has seen her become.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Ten of us met at The Ash Tree in Ashendon to discuss our reading experience, which for many of us involved re-reading a book from our teenage years.

Initial reactions ranged from loving it to finding it annoying. Here’s why it annoyed:

• It is very wordy, which for some was just too much.
• Sentence construction and descriptions were far too lengthy.
• It is way too introspective.

One of our group said that the style in which it was written took the joy out of reading!

Three of our group turned to audiobooks - 1 mixed audio and reading. Another admitted to using AI to get an overview of the final 10 chapters because time simply ran out! The audible audiobook was 22 hours long, but one listener had sped up the reading pace and cracked through it, which made us laugh. 

One great thing about reading a classic is the different editions we all bring along. Vanessa had her grandfather's copy - a second edition. Another had notes at the back on the Latin and French references in the story. Some had an introduction included, some didn't. 

We recognise that this is a classic book, written by a woman and published in 1847. It is a work of its time and should be valued for the insight into a world we were not part of. 

For second (or more) time readers of this book, it was generally agreed that the experience as mature women differed from that of our younger selves. Life experience and a different outlook led us to the following observations:

• I read this book at school and found it overwhelming - this time round, I understood it much better
• I forgot the beginning bit
• The child abuse made me really angry
• I wish I could remember how this book made me feel when I first read it
• Jane comes out as a strong woman - when I was younger, I thought she was whiny

The description of an English Summer evening was cited as a great example of how beautifully written it is, despite its wordiness. 

Our discussion focused on why Jane had chosen Mr Rochester. Was it because he was the one man who had shown her affection and/or wasn't abusive towards her, or was it simply chemistry that could not be explained? There was certainly a strong love between these two unlikely matches. 

Of the characters:

Bertha Moon - we felt she had been badly treated, as had Rochester, but perhaps she would have been worse off in an asylum.

St.John was coercive - not a nice man. We wondered if he was capable of ever loving anyone.

Jane - we liked that she was assertive and independent of mind. She was aware of the injustice that had come her way and loved that she simply got on with life as it was. She was also generous of spirit and appeared to hold no grudges.  

Rochester - we warmed to him but we had some doubts over what he was prepared to do in order to marry Jane. 

Would we recommend this book? Yes!

Well, everyone loves a classic, and on balance, although it would be very hard if all books were written this way, this is a must-read for the language and characterisation. 

Our next book is The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and we will meet again at The Ash Tree in Ashendon at 8pm on Thursday, 22nd May 2025. 

Book Choices - March 2025

Our next meeting is at 8.00pm on Thursday, 27th March 2025 at The Ash Tree in Ashendon. We will be discussing Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Here are the book choices for our next book. 

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

A beautifully written historical relationship tale with real bite. This is about the relationships with family, community, fear, nature, and the more obvious love. A work of fiction inspired by history, the story begins on Christmas Eve in 1617 when a sudden and violent storm takes the lives of forty fishermen, leaving the stunned womenfolk learning to survive on their remote Norwegian island. Still reeling from the tragedy, their lives turn in the most frightening direction when the King brings in sorcery laws and a commissioner is installed to root out evil. This is Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s debut adult novel. The prologue hits with a huge, sad inevitability. Kiran Millwood Hargrave writes with a sensitive and considerate pen; the descriptions are breathtaking. While there are some savage shocks in store, The Mercies is still a warm, thoughtful and touching read.

Roots by Alex Haley

Tracing his ancestry back to Africa, through six generations: slaves and free men, farmers and blacksmiths, lawyers and architects, Alex Haley discovered a sixteen-year-old youth, Kunta Kinte. It was this young man, who had been torn from his homeland and in torment and anguish brought to the slave markets of the New World, who held the key to Haley's deep and distant past.

The Reading List by Nisha Adams

An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list… hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again. 

Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale

Thirteen of us joined our long-awaited return to the now community-owned, local pub: The Ash Tree in Ashendon. 

We welcomed our two new members, Annelise and Ellie, and then settled into our chat about our latest read: Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale. 

We had a short debate about previous books we had read by this author, and we settled on Notes From an Exhibition, which we read way back in 2008. So we can't really classify ourselves as stalkers! Some of us admitted our devotion to the author and had personally enjoyed A Place Called Winter and Rough Music. My checks for accuracy revealed that there are still plenty more Patrick Gale stories to read!

Anyway, here is the summary of our shared reading experience of Take Nothing With You. 

One of our group chose not to read the book, she felt it was just another story about other people's lives and cannot see the point in reading books like this. This decision was made based on the sample read opportunity offered online! In the face of friendly fire, she stuck to her minority opinion and everyone else agreed to differ having read and enjoyed the story.

One final point regarding the 'other people's lives' bit: the story does feel autobiographical. The author says it isn't but he did draw from his experiences as a gay child of the 1970s, the agonies of adolescence and his life and love of music. Some characters were based on people in his own life. 

The characters are well-developed, and it was an easy-to-read novel but, in our opinion, the ending felt rushed after a relatively slow start. 

Of the characters: 

We loved Eustace and his life. Many of us could relate to him through shared experiences in our own lives. 

Dad was pathetic! and Mum - well!!

The Weston Super Mare friendship group were wonderful and Vernon was a stand-out mate (with a brilliant father). As were his music school friends Freya and Naomi but not Turlough who, we concluded, was a dislikeable control freak.

Patrick also gave us a wonderful insight into Weston Super Mare and we enjoyed the descriptions of the town and its character. 

The end did not give us what we wanted to hear about the relationship between Eustace (the main character) and Theo, his long-distance and not yet-met boyfriend—some wanted more! Others liked the sudden ending, and others (well, there were 13 of us) felt Theo simply served the purpose of being something for Eustace to look forward to. Most of us are hoping for a sequel!

The big question is: Would we recommend this book? Except for one, the answer is a big YES! Some already had.

Our next book is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and we will meet again at The Ash Tree in Ashendon at 8pm on Thursday 27th of March 2025. 

Book Choices - January 2025

Our next meeting is at 8.00pm on Thursday 30th January 2025 at The Ash Tree of Ashendon. We will be discussing Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale.

Here are the book choices for our next book. 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre ranks as one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit, and great courage.

She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer, and a rigid social order. All circumstances  circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr Rochester.

There is great kindness and warmth in this epic love story, which is set against the magnificent backdrop of the Yorkshire moors. Ultimately the grand passion of Jane and Rochester is called upon to survive cruel revelation, loss and reunion, only to be confronted with tragedy.

This is How We Are Human

Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely.

Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy … she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also considering paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants.

Violetta, a high-class escort, steps out into the night thinking only of money; her nursing degree; paying for her dad’s care; and getting through the dark.

When these three lives collide – intertwine in unexpected ways – everything changes. For everyone.

This Is How We Are Human is a searching, rich and thought-provoking novel with an emotional core that will warm and break your heart.

The Return of the Native

Now one of Hardy’s most popular novels, in 1878 he had difficulty finding a publisher due to the book’s controversial themes. The book takes place on Egdon Heath, a fictitious area of the Wessex of many of Hardy’s novels. 

Tempestuous Eustacia Vye passes her days dreaming of passionate love and the escape it may bring from the small community of Egdon Heath. 

Hearing that Clym Yeobright is to return from Paris, she sets her heart on marrying him, believing that through him she can leave rural life and find fulfilment elsewhere. But she is to be disappointed, for Clym has dreams of his own, and they have little in common with Eustacia’s. Their unhappy marriage causes havoc in the lives of those close to them, in particular Damon Wildeve, Eustacia’s former lover, Clym’s mother and his cousin Thomasin. 

The Return of the Native illustrates the tragic potential of romantic illusion and how its protagonists fail to recognize their opportunities to control their own destinies.