An amazing read. Extremely well written and the book just flows. I highly recommend this book for all. Thought provoking. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

This was a tale of different people in different stations of their lives, all centered eventually around the impending execution of Will, accused of a crime he did not commit and the sentence ordained by the prejudice of his surroundings. There were tears shed, especially during his last supper, a profound portrayal of memories to never be repeated.

The Mercy Seat is less about execution and more about grief and humanity and the blindness of our prejudices. We are shaped by hate and love and discrimination and that is shown throughout. There are secrets and resentments and love in all the lives and were beautifully and simply shown in the words given to us. I love that the story was told through different folks and their experiences.

A tenseful tale of a man on death row, in a narrative that deals with racism, justice and fatherhood - topics not easily balanced in fiction, but successfully presented here, in Elizabeth Winthrop's book. The characters and story are well-balanced and through-provoking, engaging you from the start and stay with you long after you're finished reading. Not to be missed. High recommendation.

Elizabeth H. Winthrop's The Mercy Seat is a beautiful, haunting novel that will stay with you long after you finish it. It is told from the viewpoints of many different characters, all of whom play an important role in the main plot point: an execution.

It is 1943 in Louisiana, and 18-year-old African American Willie Jones is scheduled to die by electric chair. Hundreds of miles away, that chair is brought ever closer to its destination by a convict and his warden. Other characters include Frank, Willie's father, whose mule will not go any farther on Frank's quest to bring back a grave marker for his son. The district attorney who brought Willie to justice has his conscience questioned by his wife, and his young son, Gabe, is caught in the crosshairs by the town's racists.

The Mercy Seat is a brilliantly layered novel, but it does not shy away from describing the dark days of prejudice during the Jim Crow South. I wish the ending gave a little more closure, but other than that, I feel that I can highly recommend this one.

MY RATING - 4

This is an amazing historical fiction book and the exact reason why I read historical fiction. A fabulous, interesting well-written novel about a black man imprisoned/condemned to death for raping a white girl in Louisiana in 1943. Told in a factual way that draws emotions from the reader about the racial inequality at the time and all the injustices afflicted in its wake. The story is told from multiple perspectives in third person which gives us insight into the different pieces of the story and how it has unfolded. Definitely a not-to-miss novel that I will glowingly recommend to others readers that I know! Thanks to NG for the ARC!!

Inspired by true events, this is the story of Willie, an eighteen years old black male, who sits in jail awaiting his punishment. It is 1943 in Louisiana, and whites have all the power, and there are some who will do anything to make sure his sentence of death is given and carried out. He is charged and convicted of raping a white girl, his sentence death by electric chair. But the real question is, was it actually rape?

Nine people close to Willie, the sentence or the execution will share their stories, and through these stories we piece together the real truth, and the sequence of events. We hear from Willie himself, his regrets, his fears as he approaches the day of his mandated death. The prose is clear and precise, the story emotionally enough as shared. There were three that resonated for me the most. The preacher who suffers from a crisis of faith, his helplessness at being unable to prevent Willie's death. Ora, a mother of a son who is fighting in the war, but who is kind to two young black boys. Unknown through most of the novel, her own life will change, but not before she is called on to provide and integral service. It is Willie's father though and the tenderness in which his story is told that really effected me. His determination to provide for his son the only way he is able, his last quest, that I found heartbreaking.

The ending takes an unexpected detour in an unusual way, but it was very fitting and unusual. Another good book about the abuse of power and society's cruelness in the face of prejudice and racial bias.

ARC from Netgalley.

High 4 stars

The Mercy Seat is one of those short powerful novels. Set in the 1950s in Alabama, it takes place over the course of one day. But what a day. It is the day on which a young black man, Will, is scheduled to be electrocuted for a rape he did not commit. The story is told from several seemingly disparate points of view, including Will, his father, his prosecutor, the prison Minister, and one of the men driving the electric chair to the location of the planned execution. All characters have different perspectives on the execution, but all of their emotions are running high. Winthrop's prose is simple, but the emotions she conveys are very sharp. It's the kind of book you read in one or two sitting, feeling tense and alert, and with a clenched jaw. Very much worth reading. I would definitely read another book by Winthrop. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

5 stars to emotive and lyrically-written, The Mercy Seat! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

Thanks to my friend, Cheri, for this recommendation. As you can see, I adored it!

It is 1943 in New Iberia, Louisiana, and Willie Jones is eighteen-years-old and sitting in prison cell on the eve of his execution by electric chair.

Told through sometimes short vignettes, we hear multiple perspectives in third person carefully pieced together. The DA who prosecuted Willie, Willie’s father who is lugging a gravestone on a highway via an old mule (imagine, oh how my heart hurt), a married couple, Ora and Dale, who have secrets of their own; all of these viewpoints round out this story and add so much depth.

This book was the starkest contradiction of beauty and brutality, pure of heart and total heartbreak. Elizabeth Winthrop’s gift for prose is beyond memorable, not only to my ear as I felt I was hearing these characters speak to me as I read, but also to my heart, as the words were etched firmly there.

I recommend this one without hesitation to my friends who enjoy eloquent writing and deeply moving, important stories. The Mercy Seat is a standout.

Thank you to Elizabeth Winthrop, Grove Press, and Netgalley. The Mercy Seat is available now!

A rich and nuanced and haunting portrait of a time and place with remarkable insight into both. This is a novel that is impossible to forget, once read.

”Into the mercy seat I climb
My head is shaved, my head is wired
And like a moth that tries
To enter the bright eye
I go shuffling out of life
Just to hide in death awhile
And, anyway, I never lied

“And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I'm yearning
To be done with all this weighing of the truth
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And, anyway, I told the truth
And I'm not afraid to die.”
-- The Mercy Seat, Songwriters: Nicholas Edward Cave / Mick Harvey

The year is 1943, as a bright red 1941 International Harvester drives through Louisiana with a chair the likes of which the driver’s never before set eyes on inside the trailer of this truck. Lane, a prison trusty, knows what it is, and where he’s headed, on this dusty, hot road.

This story unfolds slowly, as slowly as these heat-filled, dusty days seem to last, but there is a scheduled execution to be held, soon. An eighteen-year old young man, Willie Jones, is scheduled to die for the act of raping a young white woman. Found by the girl’s father, despite protests that they were in love, the act consensual, Willie Jones is arrested, tried, found guilty, and has been sentenced. He sits in his jail cell waiting for the scheduled date of his execution.

As Willie waits, so do the various characters that make up this town, and whose thoughts we are privy to as time passes. The prosecuting attorney, Polly, dwells on his role in this case, remains unsure of Jones’s guilt. Polly’s wife, Nell, Father Hannigan, the town priest, whose thoughts also dwell on the imminent enactment of this death sentence. Willie’s father, Frank, whose heart is set on delivering a headstone to the burial site, so that his son’s final resting place is recognized. And there is Ora, who just recognizes everything that is intrinsically wrong with this system of “justice,” but is also, at the same time, consumed with worry over their son who is fighting overseas, while Ora’s husband struggles to reveal the secret he carries with him.

”She turns on the fan and sits on the bed in the semidarkness, the only source of illumination the dim light from the hallways. She puts her head into her hands, listening to the fan’s hum as she stares at her bare feet against the blue-and-white crochet of the rug. There is a stain by her big toe: coffee, from a breakfast in bed years and years ago when the bedroom was still theirs. At the memory, her heart gives an unexpected lurch. Her boys, she thinks, her boys. She lies down and curls onto her side, her head on Tobe’s pillow. She breathes in deeply, as she always does, and notices, with a pang, that his smell is fading.”

As Willie sits in his cell in the jail in New Iberia, he closes his eyes and sees his mother in the kitchen, bringing dinner to the table where his father waits, the dog patiently wandering in the yard. The edge of the bayou, a willow tree with branches gently bending over the water. He pictures the fire in the hearth of another time, the dog curled up beside his father’s feet.

”He sees his life with every bite. He swallows his memories whole.”

Race, racism, justice and injustice, seen, experienced, endured, during the Jim Crow era South, we follow how this event affects this town, and these people. The stories shared by these individuals give us a more intimate look at the changes that ensue in both these people and this town, and the sorrow and the stories that remain.

There is a lingering sense of tenderness to this story that is filled with compassion, despite the brutality of the topic or the central story, a reverence for life shared with us through Elizabeth Winthrop’s lovely prose. Although this takes place in an era that is in the past, discrimination and intolerance still remain, making this a haunting and timely read.


Pub Date: 08 May 2018

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Grove Atlantic

Dark but intriguing exploration of the thoughts of a variety of people over the course of the 24 hours before the execution of Willie in 1943 Louisiana. Not a good place or time for young African American men, let alone for those accused of the rape of a white woman who later kills herself. It's a fast read, in part because each chapter- or character- is short but it will stick with you. This isn't one I would have normally picked off the shelf so thanks to the publisher for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

Elizabeth Winthrop's new novel, The Mercy Seat, is tough going. Set in Jim Crow Louisiana around World War II, Willie Jones is waiting to be executed for the rape of a white girl, a crime he did not commit. A timer is ticking down the hours and minutes. Winthrop tells the story from multiple character's points of view, each chapter alternating perspectives. There is Willie who sits in jail waiting for his death; Willie's father, Frank, who wants to see his son before the execution and is bringing a tombstone by mule and wagon; Polly, the prosecutor who doubts the wisdom of his ever asking for the death penalty in the first place; the prison guards charged with driving the electric chair to the town where Willie is being held; a priest who comforts the condemned; and a host of other voices. The prose is sharp and hard edged; short powerful chapters written in the clipped style of Cormac McCarthy. How many times have we heard this same story repeated about a black man unjustly convicted in America? How many times will be enough to make real change? As I said, it's not a comfortable read, but it is an important one as Winthrop explores America's prejudice and its purulent racial history through Willie's story.

"Surely, he thinks, in a world where such a thing as this exists, surely there can be no God." Father Hannigan in The Mercy Seat

The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop is a brilliant and heart-wrenching novel. Historical Fiction set in the Jim Crow South, the book addresses relevant issues of complicity in injustice and the pressures that maintain the status quo.

The story is told through the viewpoints of fathers and sons, husbands and wives, black and white, lawman and criminal, revealing who is truly innocent and who is guilty.

On a brutally hot day, a young black man awaits midnight. He has an appointment with the electric chair.

Will was found guilty of the rape and murder of a young white woman. Will's memories flash back on a loving moment they shared, and the fear that made him run away when discovered

Will's father Frank knows his worn out mule is not up to the task, but he is determined to deliver his only son's tombstone to the cemetery.

Ora and Dale have a son Guadalcanal. They haven't heard from him for weeks. Dale has hidden the telegram. A Northerner, Ora has never adjusted to the Jim Crow South. Behind Dale's back, she secrets candy to the young boys working in the field behind their store.

Lane is a prison trusty who is helping to deliver the electric chair. He is halfway through his sentence, having killed a man during a robbery. Sometimes, he says, working ain't enough. Especially when an accident left his father crippled. The captain in charge drinks his way along the road trip.

Father Hannigan is filled with doubt, finding New Iberia more foreign than his Madagascar mission. His job is to console the grieving but he has no words of hope.

The lawyer Polly dreads the coming of midnight, for he must witness the execution. Since boyhood, he has been haunted by the postcard of a lynching his father had given him. His wife Nell does not understand how Polly gave Will the death sentence. He keeps secret the threats he received. Their boy Gabe decides to witness the execution, hitching a ride with the family of the murdered girl.

"...he wonders if it really matters in the end what kind of justice it is--mob or legal--when the end result is death."
During the course of the day, these people question their complicity in evil, make connections, and make enemies. Some find mercy, others are dealt justice; some get away with murder.

This book has haunted me. I want to talk about it and dissect it. I think it would make a great book club pick.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for a review. Don't want to give a thing away. Read this book. Now!! SO great! You won't be able to put it down! Loved! I'd give it 10 stars if I could!!

mercy seat n.
1. (Bible) Old Testament the gold platform covering the Ark of the Covenant and regarded as the throne of God where he accepted sacrifices and gave commandments (Exodus 25:17, 22)
2. (Ecclesiastical Terms) Christianity the throne of God
Collins English Dictionary

One day. One sweltering, sweat-soaked day in 1943 Louisiana. In 1943, Americans had been battling enemies across the sea for two years. But by 1943, Americans had been battling enemies within their own souls for many more.

One long, miserable Louisiana day, Will Jones, a young black man - a boy really - is scheduled to be electrocuted at midnight for the crime of raping a white woman. The reality of the situation, if his accusers had known it, would have burned even more strongly in their guts, because it was a crime of audacity. Audacity that a young black man and a young white woman could ever be in love and that they dared to share that love with each other. Love of that nature wasn’t welcome in the stifling atmosphere of 1943 Louisiana.

This exquisitely written book is about love and cruelty, sons and mothers and fathers. It’s about what is planted within us by others and by life, and how we either nurture or destroy those seeds of kindness or loathing. It’s about what we do, how we choose to act, who we are, and how we endure it all. It’s about heartbreak.

The story, written in the third person and seen through the eyes of multiple characters in rotating chapters, advances through the afternoon and evening of Will’s day of execution. The inhabitants of the story are all tied together in some way through unfolding events, some loosely and some tightly woven. Yet all of them are tangled within themselves, threatening to come undone.

This was a painful novel to read, and one of the best I’ve ever read. The story is so perfectly written; the words are put together so well that I felt everything. Everything. There are very few books that have overwhelmed me with such intense feelings as this one. There is so much hurt here that it was almost unbearable to read at times, yet I couldn’t put it down. I will read everything this author ever writes.

With much gratitude to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic/Grove Press for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Also hand-over-heart thanks to the author, Elizabeth H. Winthrop for her beautiful story. If I could rate this one a thousand stars, I would.

Louisiana 1943. A young black man has been found guilty of raping a white girl. Whether he’s guilty or not he’s been condemned to death, for this is the Jim Crow south. In the hours leading to the execution we move from person to person, from voice to voice and gather a portrait of a complex yet limited society, from the District Attorney to the condemned man himself, from his father to the local white lynch mob, from the priest to the Sherriff, and it’s a taut, tense and harrowing account that takes place over just a few hours. The tone is cool and unemotional, a stark contrast to the horrific events unfolding before our eyes. There’s no melodrama, no sensationalism, just the hard cold facts. At the same time there are deep emotions here, grief and loss, a heart-rending and heart-breaking story of race, racism, injustice, fatherhood and compassion, all bubbling there below the surface of the measured and cleverly controlled prose. A beautifully written novel, which had a profound effect on me and yes, made me cry. Highly recommended.