The Mercies tells the story of the women of Vardø through the voices of Maren, a young woman who has lost her father, brother and fiance in the storm and is now living an unexpectedly independent life, and Ursa, the young and inexperienced bride of the religious warden sent to bring 'order' back to Vardo. Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s stunning debut adult novel The Mercies was inspired by the true events of the Vardø storm and the subsequent witch trials of 1621. What followed was one of the biggest witch trials in Scandinavia. As suspicions grew, the local authorities came to believe that witches were responsible for the great storm. The church was already suspicious of Finnmark, a harsh, inhospitable and remote area where the indigenous Sami people lived amongst the Christian population. On Christmas Eve 1617 a terrible storm hit eastern Finnmark in northern Norway, and a large majority of the male population of Vardø died at sea. It was designed by artist Louise Bourgeois and architect Peter Zumthor. Pictured: The Steilneset Memorial in Vardø, Norway, commemorates the 91 people who were executed for witchcraft in 1621.
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