Transpose Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure to New Brunswick's rugged Miramichi River. Surround Job with loose fists, malicious boots, and cold, gallon wine. Invite the Macbeths over for drinks. Add a lame dog named Scupper Pit and you've got the raw ingredients of David Adams Richards's Mercy Among the Children. Set in an isolated, wind-besieged house with bullet holes in the tarpaper walls, Richards's novel wonders-- pointedly, beautifully--whether goodness is merely a luxury.

At the age of 12, having borne more suffering in his child's body than any adult should endure, Sydney Henderson vows never to harm another human soul. Turning his back on the violent alcoholism of his upbringing, self-educated Sydney wins the honest respect of the beautiful Elly and the children they bear. Honest respect, however, is rarely a match for fear and base human opportunism. Manipulated, attacked, and abused by a small community eager for a scapegoat, Sydney loses his job, the health of his wife, and, most importantly, the respect of his son Lyle. "There is no worse flaw in man's character," Richards knows, "than that of wanting to belong."

The superb, controlled, and unapologetic Mercy Among the Children is nothing less than an inquiry into human strength. Richards uses the crack of ribs on a frigid night to remind us of the opportunistic populism of much so- called morality. Mercy, which shared Canada's premier fiction award, the Giller Prize, with Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost, combines the hound dog's attention to locale of fellow Maritimer Alistair MacLeod with the quotidian insight of countryman Timothy Findley's The Wars, especially its reminder that the emotions behind war also drive fights over who should scrub the dinner dishes. --Darryl Whetter


From Publishers Weekly
Unrecognized yet in the States, Canadian author Richards should win new readers here with this stark and affecting novel. A working man living in a shack in the "Stumps," an area of New Brunswick dependent on timber and tourism, Sydney Henderson has the unfortunate knack of arousing hostility among his neighbors by the unconscious display of his virtues. As a child, he was beaten by his father, sexually abused by his priest and once nearly killed a playmate. Out of such experiences he has forged a Tolstoyan moral credo, educating himself in literature and art and refusing to meet violence with violence. When Sydney marries Elly Brown, who is judged too beautiful to be matched with the town's poverty-stricken outcast, the scapegoating gets worse. Rebuffed by Elly when he attempts to rape her, a vindictive Stumps resident joins a scheme that eventually causes Sydney to be blamed for crimes he hasn't committed, including manslaughter and child abuse. The novel is narrated by Sydney's son, Lyle, who, in opposition to his father's stoic pacifism, craves revenge. In trying to exact it, he becomes feared, but is inwardly polluted. Worse, he injures those he loves most. The dogged narration takes some time to acquire dramatic tension, but eventually its unflagging rhythm becomes addictive. Though some readers may recoil from the book's frank depiction of pervasive poverty, Richards shows how powerfully the novel can operate as a mode of moral exploration a fact sometimes forgotten in the age of postmodern irony. (Oct.)Forecast: Richards's novel won Canada's 2000 Giller Award (shared with Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost), and critical attention should give it a boost here, too. Arcade is ordering a 35,000-copy first printing and sending Richards on a four-city author tour.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
There are few heroes and little cheer in this bleak novel set on the shores of the Miramichi River, where herbicides used by the local mill owner have leaked into the water, causing serious illness, miscarriages, and birth defects. Amid a cast of miscreants a rich, powerful landowner, self-righteous academics, manipulative bureaucrats, and condescending do-gooders Sydney Henderson stands out as a paragon of virtue among the exploited poor. Severely abused as a child, Sydney retreats into a world of books as solace from the grinding poverty, disregard for his self-education, false accusations of theft and murder, and outrageous government demands for payment of back taxes. But his stoic silence and his refusal to defend himself or exact revenge against his tormenters extend the poverty and ignominy to his long-suffering wife and children. Readers with sufficient fortitude for unrelenting misery and despair will find rewards in a harrowing and powerful novel that has already received Canada's prestigious Giller Prize for fiction. Recommended for all public libraries. Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
At the age of 12, Sydney, believing he has accidentally killed a friend, vows to God that he will never harm another human being. Even as an adult, Sydney takes his vow so seriously that he will not defend himself or his family when they are falsely accused of various misdeeds. Forced to live in squalor, he and his family struggle against ridicule and persecution from the residents of the small Canadian town where they live. After a construction accident set up to frame Sydney results in the death of a young boy, Sydney's son Lyle turns to violence. In the end, though, Lyle comes to see that his father was right about his enemies: "They who lift a hand against you do so against themselves." Richards' characters are well drawn, and his intricate plot is compelling. Winner of the 2000 Giller Prize for the best Canadian novel. Linda Zeilstra
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
The Atlantic Monthly [Richards] conveys his moral vision so fiercely...that he simply sweeps away all objections. Read twenty pages and you'll surrender.


Book Description
When twelve-year-old Sidney Henderson pushes his friend Connie off the roof of a local church in a moment of anger, he makes a silent vow: Let Connie live and I will never harm another soul. At that very moment, Connie stands, laughs, and walks away. Sidney keeps his promise through adulthood despite the fact that his insular, rural community uses his pacifism to exploit him. Sidney's son Lyle, however, assumes an increasingly aggressive stance in defense of his family. When a small boy is killed in a tragic accident and Sidney is blamed, Lyle takes matters into his own hands. In his effort to protect the people he loves -- his beautiful and fragile mother, Elly; his gifted sister, Autumn; and his innocent brother, Percy -- it is Lyle who will determine his family's legacy.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers
Award-winning Canadian writer David Adams Richards now brings Americans his gentle and beautiful saga of family, love, and courage in this poignant novel. Sidney Henderson is an outcast in the rural Canadian mill town in which he has lived out his life. Committed to a pact he made with God never to raise his hand or voice to another living soul, Sidney is no match for the jealous, greedy, and conniving neighbors around him. His goodness, his love of books, and his determination to turn the other cheek, regardless of the cost, are confusing and threatening to them, and they regularly take advantage of his good nature. But his fellow townsfolk are especially incensed when Elly, one of the most beautiful and desirable young women in the community, chooses Sidney as her husband.

In Mercy Among the Children, the story of Sidney's love for his wife and two children, and of the price he must pay for refusing to abandon his principles, is told by Lyle, Sidney's grown son. A child who had initially renounced his father's values and who later struggled to understand and appreciate them, his point of view makes Richards' novel as much a story about the relationship between fathers and sons as it is about the nature of good and evil. Sidney and Elly are two of the most gracious and compassionate characters we've yet to encounter in contemporary literature. And their engrossing story of loss and strength is one that haunts. (Fall 2001 Selection)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

At the age of twelve, Sidney Henderson, in a moment of anger, pushes his friend Connie Devlin off the roof of a local church. Looking down on Connie's motionless body, Sidney believes he is dead. Let Connie live and I will never harm another soul, Sidney vows. At that moment, Connie stands up and, laughing, walks away.

In the years that follow, the brilliant, self-educated, ever-gentle Sidney keeps his promise, even in the face of the hatred and persecution of his insular, rural community, which sees his pacifism as an opportunity to exploit and abuse him. Sidney's son Lyle, however, witnessing his family's suffering with growing resentment and anger, comes to reject both God and his father and assumes an increasingly aggressive stance in defense of his family. When a small boy is killed in a tragic accident and Sidney is blamed, Lyle takes matters into his own, violent hands in an effort to protect the only people he loves: his beautiful and fragile mother, Elly; his gifted sister, Autumn; and his innocent, beatific brother, Percy. In the end, no one but Lyle can determine the legacy his family's tragedy will hold.

FROM THE CRITICS

Charles Foran

Mercy Among the Children is a major novel precisely because it disavows concern for the structure of things in any one place and time in favour of the structure of things for all places nad times. Literary fashions be damned; her is a fictional universe, fiercely imagined and brilliantly rendered, and everyone is welcome into it.

Toronto Star

In its depth of feeling and fierce drive, Mercy Among the Children makes even the best of contemporary novels seem forced and pallid.

Vancouver Sun

David Adams Richards is perhaps the greatest Canadian writer alive ... Although Mercy Among the Children is unrelentingly tragic, as with most great tragedies the undertone is one of boundless hope.

Observer

Wit and acuity mark out this Canadian writer of unaffected, unsentimental integrity.

Calgary Herald