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Mercy Street: A Novel Hardcover – Deckle Edge, February 1, 2022
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Named a Best Book of the Year by the Washington Post, the New Yorker, and the Boston Globe
“Ms. Haigh is an expertly nuanced storyteller long overdue for major attention. Her work is gripping, real, and totally immersive, akin to that of writers as different as Richard Price, Richard Ford, and Richard Russo.”—Janet Maslin, New York Times
The highly praised, “extraordinary” (New York Times Book Review) novel about the disparate lives that intersect at a women’s clinic in Boston, by New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Haigh
For almost a decade, Claudia has counseled patients at Mercy Street, a clinic in the heart of the city. The work is consuming, the unending dramas of women in crisis. For its patients, Mercy Street offers more than health care; for many, it is a second chance.
But outside the clinic, the reality is different. Anonymous threats are frequent. A small, determined group of anti-abortion demonstrators appears each morning at its door. As the protests intensify, fear creeps into Claudia’s days, a humming anxiety she manages with frequent visits to Timmy, an affable pot dealer in the midst of his own existential crisis. At Timmy’s, she encounters a random assortment of customers, including Anthony, a lost soul who spends most of his life online, chatting with the mysterious Excelsior11—the screenname of Victor Prine, an anti-abortion crusader who has set his sights on Mercy Street and is ready to risk it all for his beliefs.
Mercy Street is a novel for right now, a story of the polarized American present. Jennifer Haigh, “an expert natural storyteller with a keen sense of her characters’ humanity” (New York Times), has written a groundbreaking novel, a fearless examination of one of the most divisive issues of our time.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEcco
- Publication dateFebruary 1, 2022
- Dimensions6 x 1.13 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100061763306
- ISBN-13978-0061763304
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From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Extraordinary . . . Wonderfully entertaining, boasting a large, varied cast of vividly drawn characters whose company readers will find deeply rewarding, in no small part because lurking in their shadows is the devastatingly wry humor of their creator. . . . [Haigh is] paying close attention to their choices, large and small. That’s not artifice, it’s art. And I was gobsmacked." — Richard Russo, New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
“[Haigh is] a superb unsung novelist hovering just under the radar. . . Abortion, guns, vigilantism, drug dealing, white supremacy, bitter misogyny and online fetishism all figure in the tableau Haigh expertly details. . . . Her books might feel traditional if she relied on simple structure, but she likes Altmanesque ways of weaving characters together. . . . She’s largely not interested in destruction here: These people have seen enough of it already. She’s interested in what makes them human.” — Janet Maslin, New York Times
“Haigh deftly walks across the fault line of one of the most divisive issues of our age, peeling back ideology and revealing what all ideology refuses to recognize: an individual’s humanity. . . . Mercy Street argues, both in form and content, that compassion is a powerful counterpoint to the conflict-driven stories that dominate our news cycles, our news feeds and our Netflix queues. In Haigh’s world, in other words, mercy may no longer be fashionable, but it sure is necessary.” — San Francisco Chronicle
"Terrifically readable.” — Wall Street Journal
“Perceptive. . . . In Haigh’s expert hands, [Mercy Street] explores how we arrive at the beliefs we hold.” — Real Simple
“Fiction is often a more alluring vessel of truth than nonfiction, and in her recently lauded novel centered on a Boston abortion clinic in 2015, Haigh depicts lives that intersect publicly as her characters grapple with the most intimate of decisions. From a clinic hotline manager to a gaggle of anti-abortion protestors, Haigh boldly seeks out moral nuance, melding crystalline language to a topical story that twists and turns toward a stunning crescendo." — Oprah Daily
About the Author
JENNIFER HAIGH is the author of the short-story collection News from Heaven and six bestselling and critically acclaimed novels, including Mrs. Kimble, Faith and Heat and Light, which was named a Best Book of 2016 by the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and NPR. Her books have won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN New England Award in Fiction, and have been translated widely. She lives in New England.
Product details
- Publisher : Ecco (February 1, 2022)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0061763306
- ISBN-13 : 978-0061763304
- Item Weight : 1.12 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.13 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #57,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #185 in Political Fiction (Books)
- #2,483 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #4,550 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Jennifer Haigh's first novel, MRS. KIMBLE, won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. She went on to write the Bakerton trilogy, which traces the life of a Pennsylvania coal mining town: BAKER TOWERS, winner of the PEN/L.L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author; the short story collection NEWS FROM HEAVEN, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN/New England Award in Fiction; and HEAT AND LIGHT, named a Best Book of 2016 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and NPR. Her Boston novels include THE CONDITION, the story of a girl growing up with Turner's Syndrome; FAITH, which explores the effects of the clergy sex abuse scandal on a local priest and his family; and the forthcoming MERCY STREET, available on February 1, 2022.
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Top reviews from the United States
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I am pro-life but have never been able to have an objective, non-emotional conversation with a pro-lifer. I wanted to better understand what a pro-choiceer believes and why they believe it. Further, I wanted to learn how a pro-choice person views pro-lifers. Fiction, written by a good writer and novelist, is a great way to learn. And that's why I bought the book.
This story's main character is a woman named Claudia who is a counselor in an abortion clinic in Boston. The author builds a richly described central character and surrounds her with so many interesting people from varied backgrounds and views.
The book is well written and the plot holds together well. About halfway through, the tension in the story had me spending more time each day reading. It sucked me in. I had to know what happened to all these characters and where Claudia will eventually end up.
I was not disappointed by the story. I also accomplished my reason for buying this book. I learned about the pro-life view and its origins. I also learned how abortion clinics operate and the wide variety of women they serve with the variety of services they offer. Also how they counsel women and work with the state's laws in this area of abortion.
This book was well worth my time as it was informative while being entertaining.
I recommend it.
I expected greatness from Mercy Street. The author is a brilliant writer, masterful at metaphor and simile, and analogies. The book is character-driven, to an extreme, and her ability tp put one into the angst of each character is brilliant. Also, her advocacy for Choice is irrefutable, as is mine. But, But, there is no plot! There were several good threads that I believed would lead to a rational denouement. Unfortunately, after the characters had become tedious, and the themes redundant, Ms. Haigh just seemed to get tired of writing, put her typewriter away, mailed in the script, and went to lunch or whatever. How very sad that she turned such brilliance into such disappointment.
Three stars for the themes and writing genius. Absent that, I would have given one for turning what could have been a great novel (if it only had a plot) into a semi-biographical roman a clef. I won't be reading any more of her stuff.
And that is exactly what she has rendered here: interesting characters on both sides of the abortion issue but virtually no interaction between the two sides. Almost nothing changes from the situation at the start of the book to the end. So while I enjoyed her descriptions of her characters’ lives I really wished she would have written a story.
Top reviews from other countries

Claudia, the main character, works at a clinic in Boston that offers women abortions. On the street outside the pro-life protesters stand in judgement with their banners, and one of their contingent photographs women as they attend appointments. At a time when Roe v Wade is under threat and the American religious right is demanding (successfully in several states) an end to a woman's right to choose, this is a very timely book. The anti-abortionists in the story are pitiful characters - lonely single men with inferiority complexes and no life beyond their obsession with the bodily autonomy of women. Victor's crusade is driven by racism, certain that white women are not producing enough babies and America will be taken over by Blacks and Hispanics. (Interestingly, the challenge to Roe v Wade references 'the domestic supply of infants'.) Like the other anti-abortionists, he hides behind the anonymity of his keyboard alias and has weapons stockpiled for the end of days. It's easy to laugh at these people and their paranoid, backward views, until you realise how powerful they are in America, their uneducated minds fuelled by conspiracy theories stoked by the Republican party.
In Haigh's skilled hands Mercy Street is an absorbing and prescient read earning each one of its 5 stars.