Small Mercies (novel)
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''Small Mercies'' is a 2023 detective-mystery novel by American author Dennis Lehane. The novel is set in Boston in summer 1974, during the tense days approaching the start of the school year at the height of the Boston busing crisis. The story encompasses Irish Mob conflicts, a missing teenaged white girl, and a Black man's murder. The book's cover features a photograph taken by Eugene Richards at a protest outside South Boston High School in September 1974. Lehane has signaled that the novel "may be his last."


Critical reception

''Small Mercies'' was well received by critics. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' emphasized the author's searing portrayal of bigotry in 1974 Boston: "Lehane spares nothing and no one in his crackerjack new novel, ''Small Mercies''. ... It zeros in on bigotry that ought to feel dated but doesn't."
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praised the novel's timeliness and its exploration of racism, noting, "At once a crime novel, a deep, unflinching look at racism, and a heart-wrenching story about a mother who has lost everything, this narrative delves into life in the projects at a time when the city of Boston struggled with the desegregation of its public school system." '' Kirkus'' called the book "a taut, gripping mystery
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is also a novel of soul-searching, for the author and reader alike." In ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', Laura Miller favorably compared it to ''
Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts. In the Massachusett language, means "large estuary", alluding to the tidal ...
'' (2001), saying that both novels depict "Lehane's tragic vision of Boston's working-class enclaves" and "land like a fist to the solar plexus."


Television adaptation

In January 2023,
Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...
acquired the screen rights to the book as part of an exclusive overall deal with Lehane. He is tasked with creating a drama series based on ''Small Mercies'', and will also serve as executive producer alongside Bradley Thomas,
Kary Antholis Kary Antholis (born 1962) is an American publisher and editor oCrimeStory.com former executive at the television network HBO and documentary filmmaker best known for the Oscar-winning short '' One Survivor Remembers'', which was inducted into the ...
and
Richard Plepler Richard Plepler (born 1958)
September 21, 2012
is an ...
.


References

{{Authority control 2023 American novels American crime novels Fiction set in 1974 HarperCollins books Novels by Dennis Lehane Novels set in Boston Novels set in the 1970s Novels about missing people