To Love Mercy

Frank S. Joseph's debut novel TO LOVE MERCY confronts race and ethnicity in segregated Chicago in the late 1940s. The book follows two boys -- one black, one white -- lost in the city together and exploring with innocent enthusiasm while their families tear each other apart in fear. Racial tensions thread through the novel and personal choices are made with a shattering clarity against the pressures of the city.
Includes a historical Afterword on Bronzeville, "Chicago's Harlem," in the voices of a dozen people who lived there in the '30s, '40s and '50s.