The Mercies

　　「這本書讓我驚歎不已⋯⋯讓我同時懷抱著希望與顫慄。」－小說《戴著珍珠耳環的少女》作者崔西．雪佛蘭

　　1617年，聖誕節前夕，來勢洶洶的風暴襲擊挪威境內，位於北極圈內與世隔絕的這個小島－瓦爾德島。Maren Magnusdatter奔跑到港口邊，站在崎嶇的岩岸上，卻只見那艘船，早已被浪花捲起，翻覆在洶湧的浪裡，40名漁夫全數罹難，載浮載沉於礁岩的縫隙之間，那是包含她父親、兄弟以及未婚夫，全瓦爾島的男人們。自此瓦爾島上，只剩下女人迎接寒風刺骨的永夜。

　　18個月後，Absalom Cornet奉當局命令，來到這座未開化地區進行統治。這位曾進行女巫審判，並執火燒之刑的新統治者，認為那場風暴起因不單純，並對這群未開化薩米女子的服裝打扮深惡痛絕。他認為這群女人未受到上帝的教化，並充斥著可怕的惡魔之力，他必須不計任何代價將其剷除。

　　然而Absalom帶來的年輕妻子Ursa，卻驚訝於這群女子的獨立姿態，並與Maren互相吸引。在Absalom鐵血規範之下，瓦爾島冰天凍地的氣候中，漸漸透出一絲絲肅殺之氣，這群被視為獵物的薩米女子們，將無懼任何迫害挺身而出，為自己捍衛到底！

　　本書受瓦爾島風暴及1621年女巫審判事件啟發而著，揭露偏見如何導致一場屠殺，而我們又是如何地需要愛與勇氣來抵抗這一切。

　　On Christmas Eve, 1617, the sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø is thrown into a reckless storm. As Maren Magnusdatter watches, forty fishermen, including her father and brother, are lost to the waves - the menfolk of Vardø wiped out in an instant.

　　Vardø is now a place of women.

　　Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Summoned from Scotland to take control of a place at the edge of the civilized world, Absalom Cornet knows what he needs to do to bring the women of Vardø to heel. With him travels his young wife, Ursa. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa finds something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place flooded with a terrible evil, one he must root out at all costs.

　　Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1621 witch trials, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Mercies is a story about how suspicion can twist its way through a community, and a love that may prove as dangerous as it is powerful.