Your one stop for finding multiple professional reviews of recently released books.
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
A Mercy is set in the 1690s, when the young America was growing and much of its labor provided by slaves. Jacob Vaark is a Dutch trader who inherits land in upstate New York. He acquires Lina, a Native American woman who helps him get the farm working. Florens is acquired as a settlement for a bad debt. Her mother arranged for Florens to be sent to Jacob as an act of mercy because she thought it would be a better life for her. Sorrow is a young, daft woman who Jacob rescues. Florens clings to the idea of this being her family, despite her slave status, and still stings from the abandonment by her mother. Yet her idea of family may unravel as Jacob's health turns sour. Toni Morrison's novel has received glowing reviews with the Washington Post saying, "This rich little masterpiece is a welding of poetry and history and psychological acuity that you must not miss."
