Elis' story, meanwhile, has echoes of a Dickens character, as he combats abuse, illness, and poverty to become an artist. He, too, is an outsider but in the reverse of Hillevia's. Despite his talent, he struggles for acceptance in the cities and among the urbane society to which his art introduce him. His character, though, does not feel as developed and real as Hillevia's and he can come off as almost a tangential part of the story. Yet Eckman's time developing Hillevia's story and the sense of place that imbues it is time very well spent.
The book, translated by Linda Schenk, is the first in Ekman's "Wolfskin" trilogy. The other two novels follow the destinies of the characters in God's Mercy, and their descendants, through the end of the 20th Century. Ekman has been widely translated and Blackwater is the locale for and title of what is perhaps her best known novel in the U.S., a detective thriller. God's Mercy is her first work in the European Women Writers Series published by the University of Nebraska Press and is certainly a worthy addition.
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