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Small Mercies: A Novel

byDennis Lehane

Dennis Lehane's crime novel unfolds in 1974 Boston as court-ordered school desegregation inflames racial hostility. Mary Pat Fennessy, a tough mother from the Irish American neighborhood of Southie, begins searching after her teenage daughter disappears the same night a young Black man is found dead. Her pursuit collides with organized crime, community silence, and beliefs she has rarely questioned. Lehane combines thriller and social history to examine grief, loyalty, racism, class, and moral awakening. The novel asks what mercy is possible when love has been shaped by a violent and segregated world.

Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers

Publication date

2023

Format

Print edition

Pages

—

ISBN

9780062129482