Wiola lives in a close-knit agricultural community Wiola has a black cat called Blackie Wiola's father was a deserter but now he is a taxidermist Wiola's mother tells her that killing spiders brings on storms Wiola must never enter the seamstress's 'secret' room Wiola collects matchbox labels Wiola is a good Catholic girl brought up with fables & nurtured on superstition Wiola lives in a Poland that is both very recent & lost in time Swallowing Mercury is about the ordinary passing of years filled with extraordinary days In vivid prose filled with texture colour & sound it describes the adult world encroaching on the child's From childhood to adolescence Wiola dances to the strange music of her own imagination