The Quality of Mercy (Unsworth novel)
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 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Barry Unsworth |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Hutchinson (UK) Doubleday (US) |
Publication date | 2011 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 296 |
| ISBN | 0091937124 |
| Preceded by | Sacred Hunger |
The Quality of Mercy was Barry Unsworth's final novel published in 2011, a sequel to the Booker Prize novel Sacred Hunger. It is set in mostly in County Durham where Unsworth grew up.
Sacred Hunger comprises two sections, the first is set in a slave ship. Illness follows the slaves and the captain tells his crew to throw the slaves overboard to claim the insurance. The crew mutiny and the captain is killed.
The second section is set in Florida, a decade later where the ship is beached, and the slaves and crew live alongside each other. Erasmus Kemp's father owned the ship but the bankruptcy led to his death. Kemp captured the crew and returns to London in an attempt to hang them.
Plot introduction
The sequel The Quality of Mercy is set in 1767, Kemp has brought the remainder of the crew who are in Newgate Prison and await the trial. But an Irish fiddler has managed to escape and heads to Durham to tell Billy Blair's mining family of his death in Florida. The insurance case is rejected but the piracy and mutiny trial finds the crew as guilty and they are hanged. Meanwhile, Kemp plans to invest in a mine and heads to Durham to the same village that Sullivan is travelling to. But Kemp falls in love with Jane Ashton as his compassion and sympathy grows.