An astounding debut,both epic and intimate,about grief,trauma,revelation,and the hidden lives of women.
In the year of 1413,two women meet for the first time in the city of Norwich. Margery has left her fourteen children and husband behind to make her journey. Her visions of Christ - which have long alienated her from her family and neighbours,and incurred her husband's abuse - have placed her in danger with the men of the Church,who have begun to hound her as a heretic.
Julian,an anchoress,has not left Norwich,nor the cell to which she has been confined,for twenty- three years. She has told no one of her own visions - and knows that time is running out for her to do so. The two women have stories to tell one another. Stories about girlhood,motherhood,sickness,loss,doubt and belief; revelations more the powerful than the world is ready to hear. Their meeting will change everything. Sensual,vivid and humane,For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain cracks history open to reveal the lives of two extraordinary women.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLCISBN: 9781526647887Number of pages: 176Dimensions: 216 x 135 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'This is the best first novel I've read in years. It is short,yet so full and so vivid; it is amazing.'- Roddy Doyle,author of Love
'Moving and unexpected,Mackenzie writes with great clarity and tenderness...I tore through this.'- Julia Armfield,author of Our wives under the sea
'For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain is a novel of rare brightness and clarity,concise and yet capacious: it illuminates the meeting of two extraordinary women like a shaft of sunlight.'- Imogen Hermes Gowar,author of Women's Prize-shortlisted The mermaid and Mrs Hancock
'Magnificent,bold and compelling...The writing is sometimes raw,at other times very beautiful - and from a place of deep knowledge and love of the historical period.'- Rosie Andrews,author of The Leviathan
'Compelling and beautiful. MacKenzie performs a small miracle in imagining the different lives and personalities of these two medieval women. She writes with great understanding - and the sensibility of a poet - about the power that their religious mysticism gives them.'- Alison Light,author of A Radical romance
'Intimately observed,lyrically written and meticulously researched. I loved this insight into the lives of medieval women.'- Kirsty Logan,author of Things we say in the dark
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