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A Mercy
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
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Publisher's summary
In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.
Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh north. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, "with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady." Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.
There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who's spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens' mother. These are all men and women inventing themselves in the wilderness.
A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
Acts of mercy may have unforeseen consequences.
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Featured Article: 85+ Toni Morrison Quotes on Life, Love, Freedom, and Hardships
The first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Toni Morrison, who passed away on August 5, 2019, left behind a legacy of wisdom in her novels and essays. Her work explores topics like human nature, happiness, love, and enduring hardships, but also delves into the subject of freedom and what that has meant for African Americans. These quotes will get you through tough times, inspire you to look at yourself, and much more.
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Heralded as an instant classic of fantasy literature, Maguire has written a wonderfully imaginative retelling of The Wizard of Oz told from the Wicked Witch's point of view. More than just a fairy tale for adults, Wicked is a meditation on the nature of good and evil.
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It's not easy being green
- By PangaeaReads on 07-30-08
By: Gregory Maguire
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March
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Richard Easton
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.
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Great book, greatly narrated
- By Paula on 07-30-06
By: Geraldine Brooks
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The Passion
- By: Jeanette Winterson
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues, Daniel Pirrie
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Set during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion intertwines the destinies of two remarkable people: Henri, a simple French soldier, who follows Napoleon from glory to Russian ruin; and Villanelle, the red-haired, web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, whose husband has gambled away her heart. In Venice’s compound of carnival, chance, and darkness, the pair meets their singular destiny.
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Excellence.
- By Scottie V. on 10-07-19
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Independent People
- By: Halldór Laxness
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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This magnificent novel - which secured for its author the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature - is now available to contemporary American audiences. Although it is set in the early 20th century, it recalls both Iceland's medieval epics and such classics as Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter. And if Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book's protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to achieve independence is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic.
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I am so confused about this introduction
- By George M on 09-10-18
By: Halldór Laxness
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Chains
- The Seeds of America Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Laurie Halse Anderson
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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As the Revolutionary War begins, 13-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate, become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion.
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Fabulous!!!
- By Myrisha Goodson on 06-12-22
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The Winthrop Woman
- By: Anya Seton
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 27 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1631 Elizabeth Winthrop, newly widowed with an infant daughter, set sail for the New World. Against a background of rigidity and conformity she dared to befriend Anne Hutchinson at the moment of her banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony; dared to challenge a determined army captain bent on the massacre of her friends, the Siwanoy Indians; and, above all, dared to love a man as her heart and her whole being commanded.
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Historical Fiction that Aged Very Well
- By Lulu on 11-26-14
By: Anya Seton
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The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 1: The Witness
- By: Sharon E. Foster
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Leading a small army of slaves, Nat Turner was a man born with a mission: to set the captives free. When words failed, he ignited an uprising that left over 50 whites dead. In the predawn hours of August 22, 1831, Nat Turner stormed into history with a Bible in one hand, brandishing a sword in the other. His rebellion shined a spotlight on slavery and the state of Virginia and divided a nation's trust. Turner himself became a lightning rod for abolitionists like Harriet Beecher Stowe and a terror and secret shame for slave owners.
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Purchase and Download NOW!
- By Giselle E Ambursley on 03-03-16
By: Sharon E. Foster
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Wolf Winter
- By: Cecilia Ekback
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Swedish Lapland, 1717. Maija, her husband Paavo and her daughters Frederika and Dorotea arrive from their native Finland, hoping to forget the traumas of their past and put down new roots in this harsh but beautiful land. Above them looms BlackAsen, a mountain whose foreboding presence looms over the valley and whose dark history seems to haunt the lives of those who live in its shadow.
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So atmospheric, it hurts
- By Bookmarque on 08-24-15
By: Cecilia Ekback
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Women of the Bible
- Abigail's Story
- By: Ann Burton
- Narrated by: Rachel Botchan
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Ann Burton's critically acclaimed first novel in this compelling Biblical series tells the fictionalized tale of a young Jewish woman who makes pottery to support her family. But when her brother's huge gambling debt threatens to enslave them, she convinces his creditor to marry her and forgive the debt. After her husband sends her to manage his herds in the hills, Abigail grows fond of the rustic inhabitants - and of an enigmatic shepherd soldier who's on a collision course with her husband.
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Wordy
- By Cayce on 07-26-07
By: Ann Burton
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The Hundred Wells of Salaga
- A Novel
- By: Ayesha Harruna Attah
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that turns her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father's court. These two women's lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century. The Hundred Wells of Salaga offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.
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Copper Sun
- By: Sharon M. Draper
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifteen-year-old Amari witnesses the murder of her family and the destruction of her remote African village. She endures countless humiliations as she is beaten, branded, and forced to board a slave ship. The atrocities continue as she struggles through endless days of backbreaking work and daily degradation on a plantation.
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Wonderful Story
- By Gabrielle on 04-05-11
By: Sharon M. Draper
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What listeners say about A Mercy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sarah
- 02-04-14
Absolutely LOVED this!!
Would you listen to A Mercy again? Why?
I will definitely listen to this again. I loved everything about it...and hated when it was done.
What did you like best about this story?
I felt connected and invested emotionally in the characters and their lives. I could "see" these people as I listened.
What about Toni Morrison’s performance did you like?
Her voice is captivating...I suppose her being the author allowed for the telling of the story the way she intended as opposed to how another narrator would have interpreted it. The emotion and passion of what she wanted to portray were felt.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I actually did complete all of the book minus about 45 mins in one sitting. It was truly that good!
Any additional comments?
I love Toni Morrison's work. This was the first time I've listened to a book and now I cannot wait to listen to her "Beloved" even though I've read it twice already!
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- amrasa
- 02-01-24
Excellent story
The beginning was slow listening, then progressed as a great story. Really enjoyed the analysis at the end.
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- Jill Huggins
- 08-18-21
Difficult story to follow. Enjoyed TM nterview.
I found it a difficult story to follow as there were
many references to the characters previous lives Intertwined with the more current accounts of that period. Thus requiring this reader to review many chapters/ passages to get a clearer picture of the story.
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1 person found this helpful
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- kd
- 08-26-12
Amazing story
Historically accurate, engrossing tale of North American immigrants before the revolutionary war. The interview with Toni Morrison at the end was especially good.
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- Louie Hamilton-Martinez
- 05-29-20
Masterful folklore inculcation and empathy shared
Nearly a year after my soulmate's rest, A Mercy is approved for CAW-tM.
The betrayals of women to become mothers and of the men who revered them are uniquely inherent emnities bonded since the dawn of Creation.
The story of Jakob and Rebecca Vaark relates so much to the Christian storylines of Creation regarding Adam's walk with his god (Jakob with the blacksmith) and Yaashra'al's relationship with his mother impacting his stewardship towards his wives and possessions (Sir Vaark's adventures on his day job, managing the liquidity of gentry like Senyor's; the trips to the saloons; the introduction to an arranged marriage to Rebecca)
My zeal for A Mercy zeniths in Flourence physical trek to save the life of Mistress Rebecca, in finding the smithee. This trek and the character taking it reminds me of a struggle I face with everyday with mortality and with those few who depend on me frequently from a foreground aspect. I find that I need a holding down and tussle with an angel, like the blacksmith, to not only keep from pleasing folk at my expense, but to seek from our Creator the blessings he uniquely has for me.
A hero saves those in distress, not only from the dangers around them, if not those ones depreciated in distress. The common sense adage, "God helps those who help themselves," isn't in the Bible, and this adage isn't accurate by one word, "themselves." The reasoning is this: "must a gambler sell all his possessions to risk for earning more. How happy will that person be if he wins it all, and lose his soul?" For a protagonist caricature like Jakob Vaark, the hero risks his life to teach the underprivileged of society how to read and gives values to their lives, yet he cannot save his own life.
A hero is one whom God helps to help others. Why otherwise would Jesus willfully allow others to nail him to a tree to die? He will die to resurrect Senyora Morrison, if she allowed him to dine with her despite what her family may think.
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- C. Gaylord
- 04-27-14
I had to buy the book!
I hadn't finished listening to Ms Morrison narrate her book when I ordered it from Amazon.com. When the book arrived, I read along as Ms Morrison narrated it. Her reading cadence exposes subtleties that I would have missed had I read the story to myself. A Mercy sheds light on our dark history. It also leaves me puzzled about some things. A tremendous amount of research went into writing A Mercy. It is not a off-the-top-of-one's-head novel. I will do some research myself and then read the book again. Oh, and not all indentured people were black. NOTE: A very informative interview follows the narration of this book.
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- Zerita V Phillips
- 01-27-23
Captivating use of language.
A brilliant telling of a story from a perspective not often imagined, considered, or explored.
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- Jennifer W. Gardiner
- 01-15-23
Mercy
Thanks Toni. This is a great novel. The interview was also informative. I thoroughly enjoyed this audible.
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- Judith Seaboyer
- 11-23-08
Toni Morrison
What a gift to have Toni Morrison read her exquisite novel, and to have the pleasure of an interview in addition. How gracious she is as an interviewee, especially given how much of it she must have to do on book tours and so on.
Don't miss this! And even if you've read Beloved on the page, do consider listening to Morrison read that, too.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Tater
- 12-23-08
Listening was a challenge
Sorry, I love Toni Morrison's writing, and she has a lovely rich voice, but her pauses are as regular as a slow ticking clock no matter how long the sentence or how varied its structure. I found myself predicting each pause, which made listening to the story less than optimum, tedious, in fact. I have the same opinion of the spoken version of Beloved, one of my favorite books. Please, Ms. Morrison, your novels deserve professional readers.
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11 people found this helpful