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3.0
Mercy
ByPublisher Description
The rich and nuanced story of a moment of fear and abandonment that reverberates across decades and changes the course of many lives, by beloved PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author Joan SilberThe rich and nuanced story of a moment of fear and abandonment that reverberates across decades and changes the course of many lives, by beloved PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author Joan Silber
In the gritty East Village of 1970s New York, Ivan and his best friend, Eddie, a popular local bartender, are dabbling in drugs following a short tour of Europe. One night, as Ivan experiments with heroin with Eddie, things go horribly wrong. Ivan rushes Eddie to a crowded local ER and, believing his friend is about to die, leaves him there.
This one act of abandonment haunts Ivan his entire life. He keeps this secret from his friends and later his family, forever searching for mercy from "the remorse that never dies.” Ivan's decision also ripples across time through an extended community, affecting a host of other people unknowingly connected to that night.
Following a bold cast of characters across decades, and set against the changing social and sexual mores from the 1970s onward, MercyMercy is Silber’s most ambitious and expansive novel yet, proving once again how we are all connected in mysterious and often unknown ways.
In the gritty East Village of 1970s New York, Ivan and his best friend, Eddie, a popular local bartender, are dabbling in drugs following a short tour of Europe. One night, as Ivan experiments with heroin with Eddie, things go horribly wrong. Ivan rushes Eddie to a crowded local ER and, believing his friend is about to die, leaves him there.
This one act of abandonment haunts Ivan his entire life. He keeps this secret from his friends and later his family, forever searching for mercy from "the remorse that never dies.” Ivan's decision also ripples across time through an extended community, affecting a host of other people unknowingly connected to that night.
Following a bold cast of characters across decades, and set against the changing social and sexual mores from the 1970s onward, MercyMercy is Silber’s most ambitious and expansive novel yet, proving once again how we are all connected in mysterious and often unknown ways.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesMercy Reviews
3.0
“A story about how our actions send ripples into the lives of others and how life happens through a series of choices. The multi-perspective works here almost feeling novella-like rather than a linear narrative. Set in the 70s, the characters are truly products of their time and the author let us enjoy the spectacle of each character's messiness. Thoughtful and enjoyable read, though slow at first.”
“Shockingly, this quick read successfully explored decades of societal changes, including multiple cultures. I enjoyed the format of spending years with each narrator and digging deep into their own insights about relationships, mistakes, and self-discovery. I was surprised by how connected the narrators felt while on the surface they would seem disjointed. It makes me curious about the events and people in my own formative years that led me to who I am today.
(Fable labeled as non-fiction, otherwise I'd identify the categories of change and grow, beautifully written, and unpredictable.)”
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