
The Mercies
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $21.83
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jessie Buckley
About this listen
After the men in an Arctic Norwegian town are wiped out, the women must survive a sinister threat in this "perfectly told" 1600s parable of "a world gone mad" (Adriana Trigiani).
Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Arctic town of Vardø must fend for themselves.
Three years later, a stranger arrives on their shore. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both heady with her husband's authority and terrified by it. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa sees something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God, and flooded with a mighty evil.
As Maren and Ursa are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them, with Absalom's iron rule threatening Vardø's very existence. Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1621 witch trials, The Mercies is a story of love, evil, and obsession, set at the edge of civilization.
One of the Best Books of the Year - USA Today, Good Housekeeping
©2020 Kiran Millwood Hargrave (P)2020 Little, Brown & CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Dance Tree
- A Novel
- By: Kiran Millwood Hargrave
- Narrated by: Ruta Gedmintas
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and when hundreds of other women join her, the men running the city declare a state of emergency and hire musicians to play the Devil out of the mob.
-
-
An incredibly detailed portrait
- By Maddie on 03-31-25
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
Making my 3 adult daughters read this
- By Teresa H. on 04-07-22
By: Bonnie Garmus
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
Sistersong
- By: Lucy Holland
- Narrated by: Robyn Holdaway
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the ancient kingdom of Dumnonia, there is old magic to be found in the whisper of the wind, the roots of the trees, the curl of the grass. King Cador knew this once, but now the land has turned from him, calling instead to his three children. Riva can cure others, but can’t seem to heal her own deep scars. Keyne battles to be accepted for who he truly is—the king’s son. And Sinne dreams of seeing the world, of finding adventure.
-
-
Beautiful Genre-Defying Story
- By Joelle Trayers on 11-22-21
By: Lucy Holland
-
Stone Blind
- A Novel
- By: Natalie Haynes
- Narrated by: Natalie Haynes
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
-
-
Don’t Look Away
- By Stefan Filipovits on 02-07-23
By: Natalie Haynes
-
Demon Copperhead
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
-
-
Wow! It’s a Masterpiece
- By Billy on 10-25-22
-
The Dance Tree
- A Novel
- By: Kiran Millwood Hargrave
- Narrated by: Ruta Gedmintas
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and when hundreds of other women join her, the men running the city declare a state of emergency and hire musicians to play the Devil out of the mob.
-
-
An incredibly detailed portrait
- By Maddie on 03-31-25
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
Making my 3 adult daughters read this
- By Teresa H. on 04-07-22
By: Bonnie Garmus
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
Sistersong
- By: Lucy Holland
- Narrated by: Robyn Holdaway
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the ancient kingdom of Dumnonia, there is old magic to be found in the whisper of the wind, the roots of the trees, the curl of the grass. King Cador knew this once, but now the land has turned from him, calling instead to his three children. Riva can cure others, but can’t seem to heal her own deep scars. Keyne battles to be accepted for who he truly is—the king’s son. And Sinne dreams of seeing the world, of finding adventure.
-
-
Beautiful Genre-Defying Story
- By Joelle Trayers on 11-22-21
By: Lucy Holland
-
Stone Blind
- A Novel
- By: Natalie Haynes
- Narrated by: Natalie Haynes
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
-
-
Don’t Look Away
- By Stefan Filipovits on 02-07-23
By: Natalie Haynes
-
Demon Copperhead
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
-
-
Wow! It’s a Masterpiece
- By Billy on 10-25-22
-
The Marriage Portrait
- A Novel
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Genevieve Gaunt, Maggie O'Farrell
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and to devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding, Lucrezia is thrust into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must make her way in a court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed.
-
-
If You Love Alternate Histories, Get This
- By Jim on 09-26-22
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
Remarkably Bright Creatures
- A Novel
- By: Shelby Van Pelt
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Michael Urie
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
-
-
Hidden gem, incredible narration!
- By Christine T on 05-17-22
By: Shelby Van Pelt
-
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
- A Novel
- By: Gabrielle Zevin
- Narrated by: Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have heard before.
-
-
This book sucked the life out of me
- By RMan on 08-08-22
By: Gabrielle Zevin
-
A Thousand Ships
- A Novel
- By: Natalie Haynes
- Narrated by: Natalie Haynes
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen. From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.
-
-
A new Golden Age
- By Stefan Filipovits on 01-26-21
By: Natalie Haynes
-
Galatea
- By: Madeline Miller
- Narrated by: Ruth Wilson
- Length: 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece—the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen—the gift of life. After marrying her, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own and yearns for independence. In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to keep her under control, Galatea is locked away under the constant supervision of doctors and nurses. But with a daughter to rescue, she is determined to break free, whatever the cost.
-
-
Fantastic reimagining
- By Mark on 11-29-23
By: Madeline Miller
-
Clytemnestra
- By: Costanza Casati
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You are born to a king, but marry a tyrant. You stand helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. You play the part, fooling enemies who deny you justice. And slowly, you plot. But when your husband returns in triumph, what then? Acceptance or vengeance—death follows both. So you bide your time and force the gods' hands in a wretched game of vengeance.
-
-
A killer story for the killer Queen
- By Stefan Filipovits on 05-02-23
By: Costanza Casati
-
Burial Rites
- A Novel
- By: Hannah Kent
- Narrated by: Morven Christie
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829. Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her.
-
-
Cannot stop thinking about this book
- By Sam - Audible on 11-04-15
By: Hannah Kent
-
Hamnet
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
-
-
A masterpiece
- By Molly-o on 08-03-20
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
The Light on Farallon Island
- A Novel
- By: Jen Wheeler
- Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty miles off the coast of San Francisco lie the Farallon Islands, known to sailors as the Devil’s Teeth. Despite their fearsome reputation, their remote nature appeals to young Lucy Riley, who in 1859 seeks a new start as a teacher to the lighthouse keepers’ children. But Lucy brings treacherous secrets with her, including a name that isn’t hers and a past she can’t escape. On the island, she meets Will Sisson, a mysterious man who seems to recognize her name—but not her face. Wary of Will at first, Lucy slowly starts to trust him.
-
-
A must read!
- By jael on 07-14-23
By: Jen Wheeler
-
The Once and Future Witches
- By: Alix E. Harrow
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box. But when the Eastwood sisters - James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna - join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement.
-
-
Almost. Not quite there.
- By LovelyD on 11-29-20
By: Alix E. Harrow
-
The Deathless Girls
- By: Kiran Millwood Hargrave
- Narrated by: Aysha Kala
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They say the thirst of blood is like a madness - they must sate it. Even with their own kin. On the eve of her divining, the day she'll discover her fate, 17-year-old Lil and her twin sister, Kizzy, are captured and enslaved by the cruel Boyar Valcar, taken far away from their beloved traveller community. Forced to work in the harsh and unwelcoming castle kitchens, Lil is comforted when she meets Mira, a fellow slave who she feels drawn to in a way she doesn't understand.
-
-
A different take on the vampire women
- By Reviewer and Listener 💗💗💗💗💗💗🧛❤️🩸💯❤️ on 07-12-20
-
Our Wives Under the Sea
- By: Julia Armfield
- Narrated by: Annabel Baldwin, Robyn Holdaway
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leah is changed. Months earlier, she left for a routine expedition, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp.
-
-
Has stayed with me…
- By Maryanne T. on 10-05-22
By: Julia Armfield
Critic reviews
"The Mercies is an exceptional work of historical fiction with a dramatic setting and perceptive insight into the rippling effects of extremism, as seen through the eyes of a carefully crafted cast of characters." (Bookpage)
"Kiran Millwood Hargrave's wonderful The Mercies is a mesmerizing, heart-wrenching novel which had me desperate for the women of Vardo to win through. A perfect book club choice." (AJ Pearce, author of Dear Mrs. Bird)
"The Mercies is both harrowing and beautiful. This is a book to be savored and read time and again." (Jenny Quintana, author of The Missing Girl)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Howe
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connie Goodwin is an expert on America’s fractured past with witchcraft. A young, tenure-track professor in Boston, she’s earned career success by studying the history of magic in colonial America - especially women’s home recipes and medicines - and by exposing society's threats against women fluent in those skills. But beyond her studies, Connie harbors a secret: She is the direct descendant of a woman tried as a witch in Salem, an ancestor whose abilities were far more magical than the historical record shows.
-
-
Good!
- By CKD on 07-24-19
By: Katherine Howe
-
Atalanta
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Saint
- Narrated by: Beth Eyre
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. But even then, she is a survivor. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing. Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it.
-
-
Action and intrigues
- By Stefan Filipovits on 05-10-23
By: Jennifer Saint
-
Animal
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Taddeo
- Narrated by: Emma Roberts
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruelties of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan unravels the horrific event she witnessed as a child - that has haunted her every waking moment - while forging the power to finally strike back.
-
-
Should come with a lot of trigger warnings
- By Quinn on 07-13-21
By: Lisa Taddeo
-
The Night Tiger
- A Novel
- By: Yangsze Choo
- Narrated by: Yangsze Choo
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dance hall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for. Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever.
-
-
very satisfying
- By Ian Macdonald on 03-19-19
By: Yangsze Choo
-
Ariadne
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Saint
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur.
-
-
We've been spoiled for choice
- By Stefan Filipovits on 05-04-21
By: Jennifer Saint
-
Housekeeping (40th Anniversary Edition)
- A Novel (Picador Modern Classics)
- By: Marilynne Robinson
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A modern classic, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death.
-
-
A small and perfect novel
- By martin hall on 03-06-21
-
The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Howe
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connie Goodwin is an expert on America’s fractured past with witchcraft. A young, tenure-track professor in Boston, she’s earned career success by studying the history of magic in colonial America - especially women’s home recipes and medicines - and by exposing society's threats against women fluent in those skills. But beyond her studies, Connie harbors a secret: She is the direct descendant of a woman tried as a witch in Salem, an ancestor whose abilities were far more magical than the historical record shows.
-
-
Good!
- By CKD on 07-24-19
By: Katherine Howe
-
Atalanta
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Saint
- Narrated by: Beth Eyre
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. But even then, she is a survivor. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing. Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it.
-
-
Action and intrigues
- By Stefan Filipovits on 05-10-23
By: Jennifer Saint
-
Animal
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Taddeo
- Narrated by: Emma Roberts
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruelties of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan unravels the horrific event she witnessed as a child - that has haunted her every waking moment - while forging the power to finally strike back.
-
-
Should come with a lot of trigger warnings
- By Quinn on 07-13-21
By: Lisa Taddeo
-
The Night Tiger
- A Novel
- By: Yangsze Choo
- Narrated by: Yangsze Choo
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dance hall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for. Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever.
-
-
very satisfying
- By Ian Macdonald on 03-19-19
By: Yangsze Choo
-
Ariadne
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Saint
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur.
-
-
We've been spoiled for choice
- By Stefan Filipovits on 05-04-21
By: Jennifer Saint
-
Housekeeping (40th Anniversary Edition)
- A Novel (Picador Modern Classics)
- By: Marilynne Robinson
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A modern classic, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death.
-
-
A small and perfect novel
- By martin hall on 03-06-21
-
The Good Left Undone
- A Novel
- By: Adriana Trigiani
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, Lisa Flanagan, Edoardo Ballerini, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Matelda, the Cabrelli family’s matriarch, has always been brusque and opinionated. Now, as she faces the end of her life, she is determined to share a long-held secret with her family about her own mother’s great love story: with her childhood friend, Silvio, and with dashing Scottish sea captain John Lawrie McVicars, the father Matelda never knew....
-
-
Best one yet!
- By Sande on 05-01-22
By: Adriana Trigiani
-
Libertie
- By: Kaitlyn Greenidge
- Narrated by: Channie Waites
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Coming of age as a free-born Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson was all too aware that her purposeful mother, a practicing physician, had a vision for their future together: Libertie would go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie, drawn more to music than science, feels stifled by her mother’s choices and is hungry for something else - is there really only one way to have an autonomous life? And she is constantly reminded that, unlike her mother who can pass, Libertie has skin that is too dark.
-
-
absolutely loved ir
- By kimberly eisner on 04-07-21
-
A Well-Behaved Woman
- A Novel of the Vanderbilts
- By: Therese Anne Fowler
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alva Smith, her Southern family destitute after the Civil War, married into one of America’s great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Alva defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement. In A Well-Behaved Woman, Therese Anne Fowler paints a glittering world of enormous wealth contrasted against desperate poverty, of social ambition and social scorn, of friendship and betrayal, and an unforgettable story of a remarkable woman.
-
-
Don’t get me wrong...
- By carmen on 03-09-19
-
Fifty Words for Rain
- A Novel
- By: Asha Lemmie
- Narrated by: Robin Eller, Siho Ellsmore, Katharine Lee McEwan, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity.
-
-
Transformation of a bastered girl with Blue blood
- By Emiko Sugita Deri on 10-11-20
By: Asha Lemmie
-
Ridgeline
- A Novel
- By: Michael Punke
- Narrated by: Tatanka Means, Amanda Stribling, Michael Punke
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks out on the western frontier - a clash of cultures between a young, ambitious nation and the Native tribes who have lived on the land for centuries. Colonel Henry Carrington arrives in Wyoming’s Powder River Valley to lead the US Army in defending the opening of a new road for gold miners and settlers. Carrington intends to build a fort in the middle of critical hunting grounds, the home of the Lakota.
-
-
Disappointed.
- By Monnie B. on 06-19-21
By: Michael Punke
-
The Music of Bees
- A Novel
- By: Eileen Garvin
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forty-four-year-old Alice Holtzman is stuck in a dead-end job, bereft of family, and now reeling from the unexpected death of her husband. Alice has begun having panic attacks whenever she thinks about how her life hasn't turned out the way she dreamed. Even the beloved honeybees she raises in her spare time aren't helping her feel better these days.
-
-
A little too many political agendas
- By Mike Thompson on 05-26-21
By: Eileen Garvin
-
A Queen in Hiding
- By: Sarah Kozloff
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four books. Four months. Nine Realms. Exiled and hunted, Cerulia, Princess of Weirandale, knows she has one destiny. Her enemies failed to kill her, and no one harboring her is safe. Raised in obscurity, she has no resources, no army, nothing that can help her against her enemies. Except their gods.
-
-
Polarizing Narrator, Excellent Tale
- By totallysighman on 04-27-20
By: Sarah Kozloff
-
Gods of Howl Mountain
- By: Taylor Brown
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Gods of Howl Mountain, award-winning author Taylor Brown explores a world of folk healers, whiskey-runners, and dark family secrets in the high country of 1950s North Carolina. Bootlegger Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood - a misty wilderness that holds its secrets close and keeps the outside world at gunpoint. Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted 1940 Ford coupe.
-
-
Appalatia Noir
- By meanwhile on 09-18-18
By: Taylor Brown
-
This Is How It Always Is
- A Novel
- By: Laurie Frankel
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it's another baby boy. At least their large, loving, chaotic family knows what to expect. But Claude is not like his brothers. One day he puts on a dress and refuses to take it off. He wants to bring a purse to kindergarten. He wants hair long enough to sit on. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.
-
-
Story mirrors our life -- to a point -- spoilers
- By 1mom3kids on 11-14-17
By: Laurie Frankel
-
The Sea, the Sea
- By: Iris Murdoch, Mary Kinzie - introduction
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Kimberly Farr
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years.
-
-
Murdoch Amazes
- By Sara on 08-30-17
By: Iris Murdoch, and others
-
A Nearly Normal Family
- By: M. T. Edvardsson, Rachel Wilson-Broyles - translator
- Narrated by: Emily Watson, Georgia Maguire, Richard Armitage
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of the brutal murder of a man almost 15 years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from an upstanding local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him? Stella’s father, a pastor, and mother, a criminal defense attorney, find their moral compasses tested as they defend their daughter, while struggling to understand why she is a suspect.
-
-
Interesting storytelling
- By Jenn on 07-02-19
By: M. T. Edvardsson, and others
-
Hera
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Saint
- Narrated by: Naomi Frederick
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the immortal goddess Hera and her brother Zeus overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at his side. But as they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera begins to see that Zeus is just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed. While Zeus ascends, Hera is relegated to the role of wife and mother, a role she never wanted. She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world?
-
-
Lost potential
- By Faisal Sultan on 08-29-24
By: Jennifer Saint
What listeners say about The Mercies
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 07-09-20
One of the Best
I listened straight through over two days. It was so interesting to hear about life in Norway in the 1600s and how society reacted when tragedy strikes a small community. I will listen again.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marie
- 05-04-21
Well done but not for everyone...
Atmospheric.
Well written.
Perfect narration.
The author paints a realistic portrayal of life in 17th century northern Norway at a time when "witch trials" were held throughout christendom.
This book won't be for everyone. The pace is slow, only picking up speed near the end as tension builds and finally a climax is reached with a dramatic ending.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- L. Randall
- 03-24-21
Powerful and chilling
First off I loved the narrator. Her voice was soft, raw, addicting, and I could listen to her all day. Beautiful voice for the story. Even the way she said certain words made me love her.
As for the book it was great. It was dark, perfectly paced to give you time to really feel the story, and historically accurate from what I understand to be true. It felt real. I could imagine the characters and their homes and the land. I wanted to know more about the people and their way of life from so long ago. Some people said this book was too slow but I absolutely loved that about it. It was slow in a way that kept me hooked like it was meant to be something you don’t rush. Very well written.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Reba
- 06-30-22
So Well Done
This book is so well done and just so disturbing and heartbreaking. Another group of people, predominantly women and indigenous, dominated by men who wished to glorify themselves and their religion. It’s an age old story… and brought fresh by this author’s telling. Very painful. And so emotionally wrenching and well written. And the narrator is beyond amazing and just perfect for this book. Well done all!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lauren
- 03-21-23
Beautifully written and told
A hauntingly beautiful story of human behavior in the tides of social change, encompassing a full spectrum of emotion from doubt to love, hatred to joy. A must for those interested in the downfalls of patriarchy, Christianity, and binary thinking.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cindy Jay
- 02-11-23
Gripping
Couldn’t stop listening. A fabulous book. Well recorded. Highly recommended especially for history buffs and those interested in the voices often unheard.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Samantha R Stone
- 10-27-24
Loved this!
It was difficult to get into because it takes place in the early 1600s in Norway, I had to look a few things up. I switched back and forth between the audiobook and a hard copy from my library. The audio was the game changer because it helped me follow what was going on. The plot surprised me in a few spots, and kept me interested until the very end! Definitely recommend
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lizardectomy
- 12-04-21
Compelling side characters overshadow protagonists
Describing this cold, peculiar place and time, the author transports me to the setting. Narrating the inner lives of our two main characters, the author jars me with discomfort. They are both so bland and impassive, even internally, that I am incredulous when the author foists sexual passion upon them. Romantic passion stemming from loneliness, sure. But the only sexual frisson in this book is between the first protagonist and her friend/mentor, whom the author sets up as a symbol. This is a shame, because the mentor is the most compelling and complex character in the book. She - - the most interesting and yet natural character to evolve in that isolated time and place - - SHE is the reason for reading this book. Not the two main characters.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kimberly Ligocki
- 08-07-21
Gripping
I was completely absorbed by this book. The author gave more emphasis to the historical fiction aspect; the surprise romance was icing on the cake and made it much more gripping. Held me from beginning to end and I want more from this author
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julie Gray
- 02-17-21
Gripping
I loved this book so much. The combination of Hargrave's writing and Buckley's narration is a powerful one. I'm honestly a bit speechless; I cannot recommend this book enough.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!