Hard to Catch Mercy

Coming into manhood in a small town in 1916 South Carolina, fourteen-year-old Willie T. Allson tells a raucous tall tale about the year his cousins came to live with his family. A first novel. Winner of the Lillian Smith Award for Fiction Reprint. Tour.

"Southern Story-Telling At Its Best."

-- Richmond Times-Dispatch

"A Work Of Art...Baldwin's first novel is like a great wheel with fifteen spokes, each spoke an adventure emanating from its hub in the story of the Allson family of Cedar Point in low-country South Carolina. Set in 1916, most of the tale involves the maturation of the 14-year-old narrator, Willie T. Allson, who learns about sex, death, history and the fragile nature of happiness."

-- The Raleigh News & Observer

"[A] Funny, Sad, Gentle, Violent Story...The adventures of Willie T. are so exciting a reader can scarcely get from page to page fast enough."

-- Detroit Free Press

"An Epic Tale Of Southern Myth, Mystery and Mayhem...If our stories are our true wealth, Willie T. is the richest boy ever born...Baldwin pokes us in the ribs [and] seeps into our heart...The Hard to Catch Mercy slides from your eyes to your mouth, begging to be read aloud."

-- The Indianapolis News

"Remarkable...A story that is both personal and larger than life."

-- The Greensboro News & Record

"A Compelling Tale...A whale of a good story; though dark in its vision of life, it's a full-tilt, call-home-the-dogs, shoot-the-duck, Katie-bar-the-door, can't-put-it-down kind of read. If this novel is any indication, William Baldwin is a major new talent in American literature, and his work is a worthy addition to the proud line of modern Southern literature that arose with Faulkner."

-- The Virginian-Pilot/The Ledger-Star