Toni Morrison has brought to light a violently dark world in her new book, which emanates the unique whiff of mildewed times or, more precisely, the distinguishable bitter taste of the late 1600s. Readers are thrown directly into a blood-spattered image, painted in sadness and cruelty, slavery, wars, religious matters, sexism, while an astounding story makes its way through the dimness of the general canvas.

“A Mercy” is revealed, in proper sequence, by several characters and, while all narrators disclose key pieces of the puzzle, the last persona to tell the story is unforeseen and offers an awe-inspiring finale.

Although readers may initially feel uncomfortable with the plot, as the first words of a teenage Portuguese slave penetrate the softest of feelings, their staying power would be subsequently rewarded when events fall into the right places and each character deepens the cosnistency of the general picture.

The action starts off in 1690. Florens, the 16-year-old slave, has left a farmhouse in north Virginia to find the man whom she had fallen in love with, in an attempt to acquire a particular drug from him for her mistress, who is very sick and may be dying.

Ensuing pages swim, with thoroughly-constructed smoothness, backward and onward, letting slip many incredible details and happenings. Enter Jacob Vaark, a former Dutch planter who is now a merchant. In trade for obtaining a revolting slave owner’s release from liability, Jacob Vaark shelters the little Florens. Thus, readers start to comprehend Florens’ childhood story. Vaark is a caring person who looks down on slave traffic but has great expectations from himself and the world, without failing to concentrate on the times’ harsh truths.

Individually, the people living in Jacob Vaark’s farmhouse speak. His spouse, Rebekka, evokes the frightening sea-crossing she had gone through at the fragile age of 16 so as to become the wife of Vaark, their life at the farm, as well as the nightmarish deaths of their children. Lina, the Indian girl Vaark employed as a servant when her township was struck by infection, is a very wise young woman who has directly experienced the difficulties of the interracial clashes. Sorrow, a girl whom everyone considers obtuse, offers her testimonial, and so does does Scully, a slave who has to work hard to survive.

The fight for existence is more than brutal, unyielding till death, even more dangerous for weaker people, such as women and kids. In spite of the fact that some radiance emerges at times, as well as some tenderness, pain can’t possibly go away. Toni Morrison may instill her characters with a more contemporary custom of thinking than the background of her story calls for, but that is hair-splitting. “A Mercy” makes you see and feel, care and want to change. This is why it is so outstanding. Not only does the book benefit from an incredibly well-built plot, but it also emanates emotion and feeling. And this is what a piece of genius requires.