Mercy Room (The)

by: Gilles Rozier (translated from the French by Anthea Bell)

Published by: Little, Brown and Company (March 2006 release)

Reviewed by Andrea Sisco

The unnamed teacher/narrator of German lives in a town in occupied France during World War II. The teacher (whose gender is unknown) cares only for literature, and marries, perhaps because it is expected. It is certainly not to partake in a sexual relationship as the marriage isn't consummated in eight years.

The teacher is recruited by the Nazis to translate documents for them. Each time the teacher goes to the commandant's office to wait for the assignment, the teacher watches as prisoners are led to detention cells before deportation. The teacher recognized some of the prisoners as former neighbors.

The teacher exists primarily through literature. Other than personal difficulties, the war doesn't seem to impact the teacher. Certainly it hasn't required involvement, heroic or otherwise.

Then one day the teacher recognizes a Jewish soldier among the prisoners and sneaks the soldier (Herman) out of the headquarters. The teacher brings Herman home and hides him in the cellar of the teacher's family home where a torrid affair takes place under the "noses" of the family and an SS man who was having an affair with the teacher's sister.

The Mercy Room is stunning, yet disturbing on many levels. The story is unique and interesting but is filled with such a feeling of hopelessness and sadness. The lovers are doomed from the beginning and the family is shattered by the war and by a family member's collaboration with the Nazis. And the fact that the reader doesn't know the gender of the narrator conjures up different scenarios that change, depending upon the sex assigned by the reader to the narrator at that moment.

The Mercy Room is a relatively short but powerful novel and its length serves it well. A longer story might unravel, as it would be difficult to keep the narrator's gender a secret indefinitely.

Armchair Interviews says: If you enjoy intrigue, drama and a well-written story, The Mercy Room would be an enjoyable read.