ABOUT
THE BOOK

Described as “A piercing and starkly beautiful tale”, The Mercy Seat tells the story of two brothers, John and Lafayette Lodi, who flee Kentucky and head into Indian Territory in the winter of 1887. They carry with them their families and a corrosive rivalry born of the inescapable bond of blood. Between the brothers, an ancient tragedy threatens to play itself out. Told first by Mattie, the ten-year-old daughter of John Lodi, and echoed in the voices of the white people who migrate into Indian lands, the novel follows Mattie as she fights to hold her disintegrating family together with a mix of loyalty, spite, and determined will. Rilla Askew lives in Oklahoma and New York, USA.