The Mercy Rule

At first glance Dr. LucyWeiss looks like a typical high-achieving upper-middle-class working mother who is raising two children in the suburbs with her husband. But having overcome a difficult childhood in foster care Lucy knows firsthand what it is like to grow up in the margins. Now a pediatrician she finds herself working with at-risk patients and their families. Every day she must decide whether a parent’s actions are so incompetent — or so clueless — that a child is in danger. As she moves between her disparate worlds — from worrying about her own daughter enduring the social pressures of adolescence to worrying about parents struggling with drugs and impossible living situations — Lucy must judge herself as a parent critique other parents and also deal with the echoes of her childhood.Through it all she keeps the balance with humor and sympathy. The Mercy Rule is a compassionate and funny novel sure to resonate with those who know the joys and challenges of taking care of children.