Blog Tour: Mercury by Margot Livesey

Blog Tour: Mercury by Margot Livesey

Blog Tour: Mercury by Margot LiveseyMercury by Margot Livesey
Published by HarperCollins on September 27th 2016
Genres: Fiction, Literary, Thrillers, Psychological, Family Life
Pages: 336
Goodreads

Donald believes he knows all there is to know about seeing. An optometrist in suburban Boston, he is sure that he and his wife, Viv, who runs the local stables, are both devoted to their two children and to each other. Then Mercury—a gorgeous young thoroughbred with a murky past—arrives at Windy Hill and everything changes.

Mercury’s owner, Hilary, is a newcomer to town who has enrolled her daughter in riding lessons. When she brings Mercury to board at Windy Hill, everyone is struck by his beauty and prowess, particularly Viv. As she rides him, Viv begins to dream of competing again, embracing the ambitions that she had harbored, and relinquished, as a young woman. Her daydreams soon morph into consuming desire, and her infatuation with the thoroughbred escalates to obsession.

Donald may have 20/20 vision but he is slow to notice how profoundly Viv has changed and how these changes threaten their quiet, secure world. By the time he does, it is too late to stop the catastrophic collision of Viv’s ambitions and his own myopia.

At once a tense psychological drama and a taut emotional thriller exploring love, obsession, and the deceits that pull a family apart, Mercury is a riveting tour de force that showcases this “searingly intelligent writer at the height of her powers” (Jennifer Egan).  

Hello friends & welcome to my stop on the Mercury blog tour! Mercury is the latest book from author Margot Livesey (The Flight of Gemma Hardy) and it just hit shelves this week. This suspenseful family drama is set in New England and is about how secrets, obsession and lies threaten a marriage.

As you might guess from the eye chart-style book cover, this book is about an optometrist. My vision is terrible so I am very familiar with these eye charts! In Mercury, Donald treats vision problems, but he has trouble spotting trouble in his own household. His wife, Viv, runs a horse stable, and she becomes dangerously obsessed with a horse named Mercury. This new horse reignites her passion for competing, and she wants to see Mercury (and herself) come out on top.

I’m not really drawn to horse books, but I don’t really think that is what Mercury sets out to be anyway. Viv’s fixation with a horse, though, helps shine a light on this marriage in crisis. This couple loses their way in a sort of midlife crisis. Most of the novel is in Donald’s perspective, but helpfully midway we also get to see Viv’s side of the story.

If you like psychological dramas, literary fiction (and horses) consider adding Mercury to your Fall TBR.

Mercury is on sale now. Find it: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | AudibleGoodreads 

About the Author:margot livesey mercury

Margot Livesey is the New York Timesbestselling author of the novels The Flight of Gemma Hardy, The House on Fortune Street,Banishing Verona, Eva Moves the Furniture,The Missing World, Criminals, and Homework. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker,Vogue, and the Atlantic, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. The House on Fortune Street won the 2009 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Born in Scotland, Livesey currently lives in the Boston area and is a professor of fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Connect: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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2 thoughts on “Blog Tour: Mercury by Margot Livesey

  1. Why is it so appealing to read about other people’s troubles? This sounds really good!

  2. Getting to hear a bit of Viv’s perspective in the middle of the book must add a new dimension to the story – I think I’d like that change of pace.

    Thanks for being a part of the tour!

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