Mercury

(Paperback)

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Mercury is as luminous, unforgettable, and perfectly rendered as only Margot Livesey can accomplish. - Dennis Lehane

An optometrist in suburban Boston, Donald is sure that he and his wife, Viv, are both devoted to their two children and each other. Then Mercury - a gorgeous young thoroughbred with a murky past - arrives at Viv's stables, and as she begins to ride him, dreams she had harboured and relinquished for the sake of her family are rekindled; dreams that soon morph into consuming desire.

As her infatuation with the thoroughbred escalates to obsession, it seems there is nothing - and no one - she will allow to stop her this time around.

Though Donald may have 20/20 vision, he is slow to notice how profoundly Viv has changed, and how much these changes threaten their quiet, secure world. But by the time he does, it is too late to stop the catastrophic collision of Viv's determined ambitions ...

Reviews

You'll be glued to the page - People

Livesey knows her way around human desire and disappointment. Like the recent blockbusters Gone Girl and Fates and Furies, Mercury gives us a marriage from alternating perspectives. Unlike those books, there is no looming gimmick or twist. The parties involved agree on what has happened. The question is whether or not their love can survive it. - The New Yorker

Margot Livesey is a searingly intelligent writer at the height of her powers. - Jennifer Egan

Delving into the subtler miscommunications of even the most intertwined lives... [Mercury] underlines the small efforts people make to carve out autonomy within a marriage. - New York Times Book Review

A fiercely intelligent exploration of the ways blindness - to ourselves, others, and the power of passion and grief - can divide us and transform us. - Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

Margot Livesey is a New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, and her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Vogue, and the Atlantic. She is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation and her novel The House on Fortune Street won the 2009 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Born in Scotland, Livesey currently lives in the Boston area and is a professor of fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.