Jennifer Haigh was born in 1968 in Barnesboro, Pennsylvania. She studied in France and first turned to journalism, before devoting herself to literature. She wrote her first novel while living off odd jobs, then became a student of the prestigious Creative Writing program at the University of Iowa. It was first published in 2003 and won the PEN/Hemingway Award. She is the author of several novels, a collection of short stories and currently lives in Boston.
“In the city of Boston, the Mercy Street clinic offers a new start for women who want to have an abortion. This is where Claudia has worked for years. Every day, she faces the fear and distress of many patients whose destinies are turned upside down. Added to this is the determination of anti-abortion activists whose daily presence around the clinic makes the atmosphere tense, if not dangerous.To cope with this constant pressure, Claudia dates a friendly weed dealer, Timmy, who counts an introverted and reclusive young man among his clients, who on an online platform offers himself to the service of a pro-life guru who begins to develop a fixation on Claudia.
Poignant, accurate and burningly topical, Mercy Street, Jennifer Haigh’s new novel explores the ambiguities and flaws of a society on the verge of explosion.” (Presentation of the Gallmeister editions).
CHRONICLE “Booksby Baptiste Touverey: “When the United States Celebrates the “Mozart of Comedy”. 400 years after his birth Molière enters the American Pléiade. An honor that he owes as much to his own merits as to those of his translator, the poet Richard Wilbur.