Mercy Among the Children

A Novel

By: David Adams Richards

Narrated by: Bernard Clark

Sydney Henderson is a truly great man. As a young man, Sydney, believing he has accidentally killed a friend, makes a pact with God, promising never to harm another if the boy's life is spared. In the years that follow, the almost pathologically gentle Sydney holds true to his promise - at terrible cost to himself and his family. Stunningly beautiful and haunting, scenes from this magisterial novel will remain etched in the mind forever.

©2000, 2011 David Adams Richards (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

SAD.

I found it rather sad and somewhat depressing. Not my favorite read but I had to keep
v
reading to the end.

Excellent read!

Living in New Brunswick only a couple of hours from the setting of this novel, I really enjoyed the story. It is very well written.

My only negative comment relates to the pronunciation of some of the French surnames (Belanger ) and towns (Tracadie and Chatham). Otherwise, the narration was excellent.

A huge thank you to David Adams Richards for writing this story about days gone by in rural New Brunswick.

For School

I had to read this for school. The audio book made it much easier to "read!" he mispronounced French names though...

Epic story

I was going to say this book was unreal…but it is a beautiful real story. Recommend as a must read for anyone

Another Fine Outing by Richards

I'm a great fan of DA Richards and wish Audible would publish more of his novels. This one won the Giller, Canada's most glamorous fiction prize and I can't argue. Richards writes out of small-town New Brunswick with a workingclass slant and this book is about a kid growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in a town dominated by a small-time industrialist who owns everything including the general store. The town is unrelievedly bleak and mean and thugs persecute the hero's family relentlessly. The father is wimpishly nonviolent and forgiving, turning the son into an ineffective, troubled avenger. As in other Richards fiction you feel he is tilting the scales against his characters in an almost Hardy-ish way, but he also has a Hardy-esque vividness and grounding in the physical world.

I could not stop listening to this book

I felt such a deep connection to all of the characters in this book. I kept wanting for the world to be righted, but that would have been too easy. When you think these characters couldn't be any more wronged, their lives are capsized further. This book is riveting and very much worth every moment dedicated to listening to it. The only thing that might have made this better was if David Adams Richards could have narrated this himself.

Good story Bad pronunciation

Any additional comments?

The reader didn't use the correct pronunciation for the French last names and some place names.

If you are into misery from start to finish....

This story was a series of misery upon misery. Depressing read. I wish other reviews were more candid. On the upside, the Narrator was exceptional.

whiny narrator

the narrator was very whiny. I could imagine him looking down and to the side of his shoes. I read parts of the book on Kindle and enjoyed those parts much more.