New Novel: To Love Mercy

Since I was born and raised in Chicago, this should be an interesting read.

To Love Mercy is a new book by former Chicago newsman Frank Joseph that explores the city's South Side during the middle passage between the end of World War II and the lynching of Emmett Till.

To Love Mercy is a novel of two boys the same age as Till -- a Jewish boy from Hyde Park and a Black child from Bronzeville -- who breach the color barrier that divides their families, their friends, and their communities. The novel concludes with 35 pages of transcribed oral history and rare photographs of Bronzeville -- "Chicago's Harlem" -- at the cusp of the 1950s.

The excerpt covers the history of this Black Metropolis from the Great Migration to the era of segregation, including such landmarks as the Marshall Field and Pullman homes, the Twelfth Street Station, South Prairie Avenue, Michigan Avenue, Grand Boulevard, and the Regal Theater.

Frank Joseph grew up in Hyde Park, hanging out at White Sox Park or his grandfather's movie house, the States Theatre at 35th & State. He wrote for the City News Bureau of Chicago, covered Civil Rights for The Associated Press, and was an editor at The Washington Post during Watergate.