To Love Mercy Book

Frank S. Joseph's debut novel evokes nostalgia at the same time that it confronts difficult questions of race and ethnicity in segregated Chicago of the late 1940s. The book chronicles a day and night in the life of two young boys--one black, one white--who unexpectedly find themselves lost in the city, exploring with the innocent enthusiasm of children while their families tear each other apart in fear. The racial tensions threaded through the novel come to a climax as the families meet to reunite with their children and personal choices are weighed with a shattering clarity against the pressures of the city.