Small Mercies Summary

Small Mercies Overview

In Small Mercies, Dennis Lehane takes his readers through the Boston desegregation busing crisis of 1974 through the perspective of his protagonist, an iconoclastic single mother named Mary Pat Fennessy. Set in and around the Boston area, and primarily in the notorious South Boston neighborhood, the novel winds its way through the dark web of systemic injustice and state corruption that fuels the racial violence in the city. Fusing biting critique with humanistic optimism, the novel addresses themes of race, class, gender, parenthood, and forgiveness.