The Office of Mercy: A Novel

From Booklist *Starred Review* In Djanikian’s horrifically brutal, compelling debut, postapocalyptic America is left peopled by two groups: those who live emotionally controlled existences in high-tech underground settlements such as America-Five, and the wild, emotionally fierce people of the Tribes, who are granted “mercy” by those in the underground settlements. Natasha Wiley works under the strangely intriguing Jeffrey Montague in America-Five’s Department of Mercy, where she spends her days tracking those unfortunate tribespeople who live haunted lives aboveground, struggling to feed themselves as they trek through the wilderness that sprang up after planned “sweeps” 305 years earlier obliterated 59 billion souls who were suffering immensely on an overcrowded planet. The Tribes are the descendants of those who survived. Since the original sweeps, America-Five and its sister settlements have granted “mercy” to more than 8 million people. Natasha has been raised to use logic rather than feelings, but seesawing emotions begin to grip her when she is plunged into a sweep herself and comes face-to-face with the very Tribe she is helping to exterminate. As she considers the actual consequences of her and her people’s actions, she must question everything and everyone she has ever held true, especially Jeffrey and the intense feelings she has developed for him. A grim muse on a future with shades of the Hunger Games, Djanikian’s first offering should attract readers voracious for this popular subgenre. --Julie Trevelyan

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0670025860

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