Overview

"A lethal plague sweeps the globe. Millions have died. Survivors are confined to their homes. Gabriel passes his time in a small New York apartment on the city's Upper West Side. During the plodding solitude of the lockdown, he observes several strangers in their nearby apartments. As he watches them struggle to survive a world at risk of extinction, he wonders about their lives-where they're from, what they value, how they're coping with a deadly contagion. All alone, he develops a vague yet important connection to these people, an affection for those who are struggling to survive isolation, fear and looming death. Told in powerful, spellbinding free verse, Gabriel's observations grow deeper and more elaborate as the endless days pass. But when he and a woman from across the street begin to watch each other from afar, his imagination begins to collide with the bleak reality of the times. Praise for A Plague of Mercies ""... a captivatingly unconventional love story ... brilliantly observant poetry that captures a dark moment in our recent history."" -Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) Praise for Adam Pelzman's The Boy and the Lake ""Pelzman excels at creating an intensely atmospheric setting and revealing how it shapes his characters' identities and worldviews ... The narrative is full of rich, descriptive language ... a well-developed vintage setting and classic but thought-provoking coming-of-age theme."" -Kirkus Reviews Runner up for 2021 Selfies Book Awards U.S. Praise for Adam Pelzman's Troika (A Cuban Russian American Love Story) ""Riveting drama and sensuous prose make for an unforgettable love story ... [a] beautifully rendered debut."" -Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) ""Pelzman's talent and vision are formidable ..."" -Publishers Weekly ""... transcendent, magnetic, intoxicating ..."" -Bookreporter"

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9781733258562

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Reviews

"""If future generations wish to understand what the ... lockdown felt like in America's great cities, this book should be among the first on their reading list. Brilliantly observant poetry that captures a dark moment in our recent history."" -Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) ""Delicate and intricate, A Plague of Mercies is a generous, careful, care-filled book, overflowing with grief, and also with grace. Set in the early days of the pandemic in New York City, this novel-in-verse is both a wrenching and resonant meditation on loneliness and loss, and a gripping page-turner that gestures, reaches, toward hope and toward possibility."" -Moriel Rothman-Zecher, author of the novels Before All the World and Sadness Is a White Bird"

Author Information

"Adam Pelzman was born in Seattle, raised in northern New Jersey, and has spent most of his life in New York City. He studied Russian literature at the University of Pennsylvania and went to law school at UCLA. His first novel, Troika, was published by Penguin (Amy Einhorn Books) and later republished by Jackson Heights Press as A Cuban Russian American Love Story. He is also the author of The Papaya King (which Kirkus Reviews described as ""entrancing"" and ""deeply memorable"") and The Boy and the Lake (which is set in New Jersey during the late 1960s). His newest novel is A Plague of Mercies."

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