The Miracle of Mercy Land

by River Jordan

Waterbrook Press
352 pages

Like Reading a Work of Art

Mercy Land was “born in bolt of lightning on the banks of Bittersweet Creek.” So begins Mercy’s life. A down-to-earth, traveling preacher’s daughter in the 1930s, raised in an Alabama town that was barely a town. Mercy leaves home for the bright lights of Bay City and eventually lands a job at the newspaper with newspaper veteran, Doc Philips. For years she trains under the wing of the steadfast owner/editor.

Then the strange book appears at the newspaper office. Not just any book, but one that gifts the reader with insights into the lives, past and present, of Bay City residents, and may give the reader the ability to right the past’s wrongs. But is that a blessing or a curse?

Upon the mysterious arrival of the book, Doc decides to retire and he hires a stranger, John Quincy, a man with Hollywood looks, to take his place. A man Mercy is dangerously drawn to.

The lives of Mercy, Doc, and John weave together and apart until the purpose of the book is revealed, in the process exposing the reader as well.

Have you ever read a book that, when you reach the end, you hold that story in your hand and believe you’re holding a masterpiece? That’s how I felt when I completed The Miracle of Mercy Land. It’s an amazing work of art. I love River Jordan’s Southern prose. The story flows quickly with dancing eloquence, and your heart bleeds right along with the characters’. All throughout, Jordan gives readers peeks inside our own soul. In the end we discover maybe the story isn’t so much about Mercy Land, but ourselves.



Credit: Chris Blanz

 Meet River Jordan

River Jordan is a critically acclaimed novelist and playwright. Her fourth novel, The Miracle of Mercy Land, a southern mystical work set in 1938 features a protagonist full of moxie and a ‘backbone of worthy’ in this suspenseful story about love, mystery, and the choices we make. Jordan’s first non-fiction narrative, Praying for Strangers, An Adventure of the Human Spirit arrives from Penguin/Berkley in Hardcover April 5, 2011. She speaks around the country on the “Power of Story,” and produces and hosts the radio program, Clearstory on 107.1 FM from Nashville, TN where she makes her home.

http://www.riverjordan.us/