Mercy House Overview
Dillon’s contemporary novel is a deep, scathing critique of violence against women. The novel focuses on 69-year-old Sister Evelyn Fanning, her fight to keep Mercy House (a shelter for battered women, run by the Catholic Church) open, and her confrontation with her rapist, Bishop Robert Hawkins. Through a deeply entrenched third-person narration, and a handful of first-person chapters, there is a pronounced display misogyny and female dehumanization in secular and religious society alike. Set in Brooklyn, New York, Mercy House tackles themes of trauma, recovery, aging, and female precarity.
Study Pack
The Mercy House Study Pack contains:
