Mercy Journals

(Paperback)

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Description

This unsettling dystopian novel is set thirty years in the future, in the wake of a third world war. One of only a few survivors, a former soldier nicknamed Mercy is haunted by lingering memories of his family. But when he travels into the wilderness with his brother Leo to look for his missing sons, the line between truth and lies becomes indistinguishable, and Mercy's own moral code, destroyed by war, returns into play.Set against a fantastical landscape, "The Mercy Journals "explores the parameters of personal morality and forgiveness.Claudia Casper's previous novels include "The Reconstruction "(St. Martin's Press).

Reviews

"From the opening paragraph I dove into the deep end of a dystopian world that was terrifying, familiar and thrilling and made me keep reading until the shocking end. The novel focuses on family and survival and love and human nature; hunger, passion, possession and murder. A masterpiece." --Jamie Lee Curtis

"Claudia Casper's The Mercy Journals is a book of extraordinary vision. Part Lord of the Flies, part Romeo Dallaire's Shake Hands with the Devil, I came out of this book deeply touched by the characters who moved through it, but also more alert. There's a sense of the prescient in this novel - of where we could end up if we're not careful." --Aislinn Hunter, author of The World Before Us

I admire tremendously how The Mercy Journals takes current concerns -- global warming, PTSD, anti-immigration policies, war -- and weaves them seamlessly into a gripping and mysterious plot set in a future world that, like any excellent sci fi, is really about today. --John Colapinto, staff writer at The New Yorker

Casper employs clear, concise prose that moves at a steady clip, and the exploration, through one man's account, of what it means to outlive one's purpose is tightly constructed. --Publishers Weekly

Posing profound questions about compassion, values, and our capacity for life-saving change, Claudia Casper performs a remarkably incisive and sensitive variation on the dystopian theme in this suspenseful and provocative tale of sacrifice and survival. --Booklist

Author Bio

Claudia Casper: Claudia Casper is the author of two previous novels, The Reconstruction (St. Martin's) and The Continuation of Love By Other Means (Penguin). She is writing a screenplay adaptation of The Reconstruction for a 3D feature film co-production. She teaches writing at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.