A CLOSER LOOK AT DECEMBER’S
MERCY TOWN
By Nancy Chadwick
Can Forgiveness Heal What Tragedy Broke?
THE BOOK
For readers of Ann Patchett and Louise Erdrich comes a powerful contemporary novel about a family fractured by tragedy … and the courage it takes to heal what’s been broken.
When Margaret Payne returns to her northern Wisconsin hometown after years away, she finds the place unchanged in all the worst ways. The accidental shooting that killed her younger brother, Bean, still casts a long shadow over her family and the community. And when Margaret discovers plans to develop Dell Landing — a sacred hill long tied to generations of Indigenous families, including the reclusive man who pulled the trigger — old wounds rip open once more.
With a mother clinging to denial, a father burning with anger and a town split down the middle, Margaret must confront the truth she’s spent years avoiding. Facing Mr. Kipp means questioning everything she believes about justice, grief and grace. But in that confrontation lies a path she never expected: the possibility of forgiveness, even for the unforgivable.
Mercy Town is a deeply moving, redemptive novel about the power of compassion, the cost of holding on and the healing that begins the moment we choose to let go.
THE AUTHOR
Nancy Chadwick grew up in a northern suburb of Chicago. After receiving a journalism degree at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Nancy wanted to write mini stories to create ads for clients. Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago, her first job out of school, would be that place. After working a decade in the advertising agency business, and in international corporate banking, she became a writer, seizing inspiration from her years living in Chicago and San Francisco, and from the many meanderings through the woods of any forest. Her essays have appeared in The Magic of Memoir, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Writer’s Digest, and Women Writers, Women’s Books as well as blogs by the Chicago Writers Association Write City, Brevity, and About Write. Under the Birch Tree, A Memoir of Discovering Connections and Finding Home, The Wisdom of The Willow, and Mercy Town (2025) are by She Writes Press.
LEARN MORE
To learn more about Nancy Chadwick, visit www.nancychadwickauthor.com
