Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Alive in the Merciful Country

By: A.L. Kennedy
Narrated by: Emily Joyce, Carl Prekopp
Pre-order: Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Pre-order Now for £17.49

Pre-order Now for £17.49

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Teaching nine-year-olds on Zoom. A relationship interrupted by enforced distance. A teenaged son who cannot leave the house. Anna McCormick is already struggling to cope with the unwanted twists 2020 has served up. But when an unstamped envelope arrives overnight, her past begins to cast its own long shadow on the present.

With an uncaring government compounding her woes and a hostile threat drawing closer, Anna must dig deep to keep hope alive for herself and those around her.

This is a twisty, heart-racing thriller and viscerally rendered portrayal of abuse of power by the state, by the police and by the villains much closer to home.

©2025 A.L. Kennedy (P)2025 Bolinda Publishing
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

'It seems everything [Kennedy] touches turns to art ... she continues to impress with her psychological fearlessness and breathtaking affection for language.' (New York Times)
'A testament to the minor miracle of Kennedy's talent ... a talented stylist, her lyrical flights are often musical and rich.' (New York Magazine)
'Kennedy does bleak the way the Russians do epic; unremittingly, awesomely and undershot with redeeming humour.' (Sunday Times)

What listeners say about Alive in the Merciful Country

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.