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Short mercy : a novel / Colin Sweets Arsenault.

by Arsenault, Colin Sweets.

Pottersfield Press, 2021.

Friendship -- Fiction.

Criminals -- Fiction.

Small town life -- Fiction.

Bookstores -- Fiction.

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award.

Atlantic Provinces -- Fiction.

9781989725672 (trade pbk.)

235 p. ; 21 cm.

"Short mercy is the story of two unlikely friends setting out on a road trip, in search of the adventure their small-town routine can't provide. Forty-one year old Jim Short owns and operates Hethering, Nova Scotia's generations-old used book store, A Word With You. His failed forays into authorship and marriage have left him lonely and confined to the patterns of shop upkeep, and his reputation has begun to sour since his rigidness halted a promising urban development in the area. His confined existence makes it impossible for locals to understand why A Word With You is the target of a late-evening heist by a masked figure bearing a striking resemblance to legendary Maritime bank robber WJ Mercy. As rumours swirl, foot traffic picks up at the store and Jim's struck by a second theft, this time perpetrated by MacKenzie White -- a teenage ne'er-do-well known best for ripping about town in the 1976 Buick Skylark her grandfather left her, seemingly with nowhere important to go. Upon returning the ratty book she stole, Mac gets Jim alone, and tempts him with the idea that she might have inside information on where to find WJ Mercy, and how to retaliate. After much hesitation, Jim throws caution to the wind. In the following week, Jim and Mac ride the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick highways in joyous liberation. They learn of each other's darkest days and how similarly and differently they each cope with their many disappointments. Through this bonding, Mac teaches Jim how to be a bona fide criminal. They begin by syphoning gas at truck-stops, then they upgrade to stealing from restaurants, then hotels; ultimately they devise a plan to hold-up a bank in the concrete wasteland of Mayflower, NB. Their idea is to steal no more than exactly the amount stolen from the book store by WJ Mercy -- as Mac explains, you must take what the world owes you, for right and wrong aren't black and white."--From publisher.

Winner of the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Fiction), 2022.

Canadian fiction.

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