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Mercy
Critic Reviews
Great
Based on 5 reviews on
A rich and nuanced story beginning with a moment of fear and abandonment that will reverberate across decades and change the course of many lives, by a beloved PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author 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 and Eddie experiment with heroin, things go horribly wrong. In a panic, Ivan rushes Eddie to a crowded local ER and, believing his friend is about to die, makes the awful choice to leave 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 "a 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, Mercy is Silber's most ambitious and expansive novel yet, proving once again how we are all connected in mysterious and often unknown ways.
Book Details
- Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
- Publish Date: Sep 2nd, 2025
- Pages: 256
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.58in - 5.83in - 0.94in - 0.92lb
- EAN: 9781640097070
- Categories: • Friendship• Literary• Coming of Age
About the Author
JOAN SILBER is the author of ten books of fiction. Her last book, Secrets of Happiness, was a Washington Post and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year and an O Magazine Most Anticipated Book. Her novel, Improvement, was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. She also received the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Her book, Fools, was long-listed for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Other works include The Size of the World, finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, and Ideas of Heaven, finalist for the National Book Award and The Story Prize. She lives in New York and has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and in the Warren Wilson MFA program.
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
Time, A Most Anticipated Book of the Fall
Kirkus Reviews, 1 of 20 Best Books to Read in September
Library Journal, A Title to Watch
Literary Hub, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year
"Mercy is an expansive tale about guilt and forgiveness that traces the ripple effects of one man's most regrettable decision over five decades." -- Shannon Carlin, Time "A winning exploration of friendship and betrayal . . . In case you only read the first paragraph of this review, I'll start with the takeaway: If you have never read Joan Silber, it is time you did . . . [T]he same readers who have made Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, and Jennifer Egan household names would love her. If you are in this group, allow me to recommend Mercy as a jumping-off point for her delightful oeuvre. It could be that one of the things that's so great about Silber's work is also responsible for her cult status. Like its predecessors, Mercy is a novel-in-stories, a single fictional universe with a rotating cast of narrators, connected by threads of plot and meaning that unfold over the course of the book as they would in a novel. At the same time, the sections leap decades and continents to uniquely dazzling effect. . . If you are interested in friendship and betrayal, pain and relief, the power of sex, the ever-present mixture of love and misunderstanding between generations of a family, the process of coming to terms with one's past--the characters of Mercy have some stories they would like to tell you." --Marion Winik, The Boston Globe "It had me at page one. "--Louise Marburg, The Hudson Review "A story of love, tragedy, of paths diverging and intertwining, Mercy is human and moving, awful and beautiful." --Julia Hass, Literary Hub "Silber--the great chronicler of the webs of love and coincidence that connect people--turns her attention to drugs and sex and mercy . . . Like a favorite special in a beloved restaurant, Silber again serves her unique flavor of reading joy." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Silber is an expert at evoking a time and place in a few brushstrokes, especially 1970s New York City. This is a short novel that addresses some very human themes, like regret and betrayal, while also being threaded with humor and plainspoken intimacy. Some chapters feel like a conversation with an old friend. Silber's canvas may be small, but like her Secrets of Happiness and Improvement before it, Mercy feels like a complete world." --BookPage (starred review) "Alluring . . . Silber sheds light on how people are shaped by where they come from and who they know." --Publishers Weekly "Joan Silber's sweeping yet intimate novel traces the delicate patterns by which others, often from afar and unknowingly, may determine our innermost longings and even our fate. Mercy is a profound, gorgeously written reflection on identity, friendship, and love. A book that keeps echoing long after turning the last page." --Hernan Diaz, author of Trust, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize "The universe of Joan Silber's superb new novel Mercy is vast yet particular: it holds its inhabitants accountable for their actions, forgiving them, shaking them, binding their destinies through the power of story. What do the vanished owe to the visible? What do the living owe the dead? As Mercy tackles these powerful questions, it reveals itself to be a true masterpiece." --Carolyn Ferrell, author of Dear Miss Metropolitan
Kirkus Reviews, 1 of 20 Best Books to Read in September
Library Journal, A Title to Watch
Literary Hub, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year
"Mercy is an expansive tale about guilt and forgiveness that traces the ripple effects of one man's most regrettable decision over five decades." -- Shannon Carlin, Time "A winning exploration of friendship and betrayal . . . In case you only read the first paragraph of this review, I'll start with the takeaway: If you have never read Joan Silber, it is time you did . . . [T]he same readers who have made Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, and Jennifer Egan household names would love her. If you are in this group, allow me to recommend Mercy as a jumping-off point for her delightful oeuvre. It could be that one of the things that's so great about Silber's work is also responsible for her cult status. Like its predecessors, Mercy is a novel-in-stories, a single fictional universe with a rotating cast of narrators, connected by threads of plot and meaning that unfold over the course of the book as they would in a novel. At the same time, the sections leap decades and continents to uniquely dazzling effect. . . If you are interested in friendship and betrayal, pain and relief, the power of sex, the ever-present mixture of love and misunderstanding between generations of a family, the process of coming to terms with one's past--the characters of Mercy have some stories they would like to tell you." --Marion Winik, The Boston Globe "It had me at page one. "--Louise Marburg, The Hudson Review "A story of love, tragedy, of paths diverging and intertwining, Mercy is human and moving, awful and beautiful." --Julia Hass, Literary Hub "Silber--the great chronicler of the webs of love and coincidence that connect people--turns her attention to drugs and sex and mercy . . . Like a favorite special in a beloved restaurant, Silber again serves her unique flavor of reading joy." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Silber is an expert at evoking a time and place in a few brushstrokes, especially 1970s New York City. This is a short novel that addresses some very human themes, like regret and betrayal, while also being threaded with humor and plainspoken intimacy. Some chapters feel like a conversation with an old friend. Silber's canvas may be small, but like her Secrets of Happiness and Improvement before it, Mercy feels like a complete world." --BookPage (starred review) "Alluring . . . Silber sheds light on how people are shaped by where they come from and who they know." --Publishers Weekly "Joan Silber's sweeping yet intimate novel traces the delicate patterns by which others, often from afar and unknowingly, may determine our innermost longings and even our fate. Mercy is a profound, gorgeously written reflection on identity, friendship, and love. A book that keeps echoing long after turning the last page." --Hernan Diaz, author of Trust, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize "The universe of Joan Silber's superb new novel Mercy is vast yet particular: it holds its inhabitants accountable for their actions, forgiving them, shaking them, binding their destinies through the power of story. What do the vanished owe to the visible? What do the living owe the dead? As Mercy tackles these powerful questions, it reveals itself to be a true masterpiece." --Carolyn Ferrell, author of Dear Miss Metropolitan