Shape of Mercy

Narrator Tavia Gilbert's clear, youthful diction adds appeal to her portrayal of college student Lauren Durough. She captures Lauren's determination to be independent, even though she relies on her parents for her college tuition. With empathy Gilbert portrays Lauren's job interview with octogenarian Abigail Boyle. Abigail agrees to hire Lauren to transcribe the journal of one of her ancestors, Mercy Hayworth. Mercy was tried and convicted of witchcraft in the seventeenth-century Salem witch trials--her journal is a firsthand account of the event. Gilbert maintains a high emotional pitch as listeners learn how Mercy reaches from the past to the present to transform this contemporary young woman. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from July 7, 2008
Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren “Lars” Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars together face life's hardest struggles about where true meaning is found, which dreams are worth chasing and which only lead to emptiness, and why faith and hope are essential on life's difficult path. Meissner's prose is exquisite and she is a stunning storyteller. This is a novel to be shared with friends.