The Miracle of Mercy Land by River Jordan

Mercy Land has made some unexpected choices for a young woman in the 1930s. The sheltered daughter of a traveling preacher, she chooses to leave her rural community to move to nearby Bay City on the warm, gulf-waters of southern Alabama. There she finds a job at the local paper and spends seven years making herself indispensable to old Doc Philips, the publisher and editor. Then she gets a frantic call at dawn—it’s the biggest news story of her life, and she can’t print a word of it.

Doc has come into possession of a curious book that maps the lives of everyone in Bay City—decisions they’ve made in the past, and how those choices affect the future. Mercy and Doc are consumed by the mystery locked between the pages—Doc because he hopes to right a very old wrong, and Mercy because she wants to fulfill the book’s strange purpose. But when a mystery from Mercy’s past arrives by train, she begins to understand that she will have to make choices that will deeply affect everyone she loves—forever.

River Jordan is a southerner with a global perspective. She began her writing career as a playwright and spent over ten years with the Loblolly Theatre group, where her original works were produced, including Mama Jewels: Tales from Mullet Creek, Soul, Rhythm and Blues, and Virga.

The Miracle of Mercy Land, a novel set in 1938 along the Gulf waters of Alabama, debuted September 7, 2010 and has been painted as ‘A triumph of beauty,”.

Ms. Jordan teaches and speaks around the country on “The Power of Story”, and produces and hosts Clearstory Radio on WRFN, 107.1fm Nashville.

When not traveling the back roads of America, River lives with her husband Owen Hicks, and their Great Pyrennees lap dog, Titan in Nashville, Tennessee. She thinks about where stories come from – places and people and moods of the heart while rocking on her front porch. And long after the sun sets over the ridge, she waits for the moon to rise, watches the stars come out, and stares off into the blue-night sky believing with all her might.

You can read an excerpt of The Miracle of Mercy Land on the author’s website. 

Heidi Says . . . It didn’t take me long at all to get sucked into this book, my first by River Jordan.  The characters were so well-thought-out and described that I found myself instantly attracted to all of them and wanting to learn more. 

My daughter so the book laying around one day and said “I can tell you don’t like this book, Mom,” to which I asked, “Why do you say that?”  She went on to explain that it was taking me way too long to read it.  I usually zip through books.  This one, I was savoring in small bites.

I was drawn into the storyline and wanted to learn more.  However, I am not a fan of the fantasy genre, and the fantastical aspects of  this book just made it a little too over-the-top for me.  So, I chose to read it more slowly so that I could better digest what I was reading and process it. 

I think that Ms. Jordan is  wonderful author and there’s probably a message in this book deeper than my brain was able to dig.  But, I did definitely walk away having learned a few things and I did enjoy the book.  I will consider picking up more of Mr. Jordan’s books in the future and would totally recommend The Miracle of Mercy Land for those of you who like a bit of fantasy mixed in with your fiction. 

NOTE: I received a free copy of this book from Waterbrook Multnomah in exchange for my sharing an honest review of it.  I was not compensated in any other way.