Mercy

by Bill Littlefield

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.

Buy on Amazon Buy on Waterstones

*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Pub Date 28 Jul 2022 | Archive Date 30 Jul 2022

Black Rose Writing

General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction

Talking about this book? Use #Mercy #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!

Description

In a neighborhood nondescript except for how often small houses are being torn down to make way for big houses, a beautiful woman too young to be widowed waits for her husband to come home from prison. Arthur Baladino is getting out courtesy of a compassionate leave program, the theory being that he's too feeble to shoot anybody else.

Next door to the Baladino home, a little boy in a baseball uniform asks his father, "What happens when you die?" It's a question the father will soon confront in a terrible and surprising way. Just down the street, a young woman is trying to figure out how to re-start her life after her husband has lost his money, hers, and their home by day-trading in their basement. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, several women and a couple of men—two of them accomplished arsonists who've sometimes been employed by Arthur Baladino—dream of what might have been if they'd been wiser, more patient, or luckier in a past long dead everywhere but in their imaginations.

On a landscape more often than not indifferent, these people seek mercy, if not in love, than in the sometimes rickety, temporary alternative connections they can find with their fellow seekers.

In a neighborhood nondescript except for how often small houses are being torn down to make way for big houses, a beautiful woman too young to be widowed waits for her husband to come home from...

A Note From the Publisher

For 25 years, Bill Littlefield hosted and wrote for NPR's weekly sports magazine program, Only A Game, which he helped to create in 1993. His commentaries enlivened Morning Edition and appeared in The Boston Globe and various other papers and magazines. Littlefield is the author of seven books, including two novels, "Prospect" (Houghton Mifflin) and "The Circus in the Woods" (Houghton Mifflin.) He was a professor in the English Department at Curry College for 39 years. He is currently working with the Emerson Prison Initiative to help incarcerated men earn college degrees.

For 25 years, Bill Littlefield hosted and wrote for NPR's weekly sports magazine program, Only A Game, which he helped to create in 1993. His commentaries enlivened Morning Edition and appeared...

Advance Praise

"Littlefield's literary intelligence and passion shine through all he writes." -Michael Lewis, Moneyball and The Big Short

"Littlefield is a master at his craft. Expect the unexpected. Enjoy." -Leigh Montville, author of Tall Men, Short Shorts

"You'll find yourself having a hard time putting Mercy down as you turn the pages to find out what happens next." -Ed Meek, The Arts Fuse

"Littlefield knows how to tell stories with astonishing skill, finding the shared wisdom and simple compassion that unites us all." -Glenn Stout, author of The Selling of the Babe

"In clear prose and crisp dialogue, Littlefield deftly explores the themes of life and death, love and betrayal, family and forgiveness. We should all have mercy in our hearts and Mercy on our bookshelves." -Jim Hirsch, author of Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter

"Crackling with energy, and quick with life, Mercy hooks us from the start, and surprises us all the way. But its real surprise lies in its wisdom: this book has much to tell us about life and what it's really like. Written by a man who knows about a lot more than baseball, it's a wonder and a pleasure." -Gish Jen, award-winning author of The Resisters

"Littlefield's literary intelligence and passion shine through all he writes." -Michael Lewis, Moneyball and The Big Short

"Littlefield is a master at his craft. Expect the unexpected. Enjoy." ...