Small Mercies

Named a Best Middle-Grade Book of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews2021 Outstanding International Books List, United States Board on Books for Young PeopleMercy lives in modern-day Pietermaritzburg, South Africa with her eccentric foster aunts two elderly sisters so poor, they can only afford one lightbulb. A nasty housing developer is eying their house. And that same house suddenly starts falling apart just as Aunt Flora starts falling apart. She s forgetting words, names, and even how to behave in public. Mercy tries to keep her head down at school so nobody notices her. But when a classmate frames her for stealing the school s raffle money, Mercy's teachers decide to take a closer look at her home life. Along comes Mr. Singh, who rents the back cottage of the house on Hodson Road. When he takes Mercy to visit a statue in the middle of the city, she learns that the shy, nervous Mohandas he tells stories about is actually Gandhi, who spent a cold and lonely night in the waiting room of the Pietermaritzburg train station over a hundred years ago. It marked the beginning of his life s quest for truth and the visit to his statue marks Mercy s realization that she needs just like Gandhi to stand up for herself. Mercy needs a miracle. But to summon that miracle, she has to find her voice and tell the truth and that truth is neither pure nor simple.