The Mercies - Independent Bookshop Edition'A gripping novel inspired by a real life witch hunt . . . Beautiful and chilling' Madeline Miller, author of Circe On Christmas Eve, 1617, the sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vard 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 Vard wiped out in an instant. Now the women must fend for themselves. Eighteen months later, a sinister figure

the third most populous province of Oceania

and commutes daily to her job as a lowly office clerk

or whether what really happened was far more sinister than suicide

and all must submit to the wisdom of crowds

and one thing has led to another

Yet it seems the public is tiring of him at last

There is your opportunity'

this bewitching novel celebrates the power of music to connect across divides

'I am not a detective

As Jerrold - with his usual mix of bad timing

with the insight and originality we expect from one of our best travel writers

Skillfully he weaves characters and incidents into the pattern of his own development