Much of Eddie’s own life felt like that, a botched and risky present that the future dragged into a pattern. from Mercy by Joan SIlber

“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” asks Ivan’s daughter. The novel is the story of that worst thing, how Ivan’s best friend Eddie overdosed, and Ivan and Eddie’s girl Ginger got him to the hospital, but thinking Eddie was dead, Ivan walked away. But walking away didn’t mean leaving Eddie behind. Ivan was haunted by the decision all of his life. And Eddie thought about Ivan.

The novel is a series of short stories told by the main characters with parallel stories from a girl who had been in the ER that night.

“Everyone has a past,” Ivan knew. He was keeping his from his daughter. She thought his worse sins were destroying the planet, but he understood that “I was on the road to ruin, where I belonged, and just a few accidents of fate had saved me.”

Each character encounters such ‘accidents’, these acts of mercy, escaping the karma of a just universe.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.