A novel about love and grief, deeply moving in its accuracy.

Ever since she was little, Edith has had strange thoughts, some of them comical, others really disturbing.

She prefers girls but believes that only boys have the right to love them. Making herself a fake beard out of foam changes nothing, nor does imagining adventures in the schoolyard. Worse, telling her older sister that she’s in love with one of her classmates brings forth an obsessive feeling of shame.

Edith has another obsession. At eight years old, one December evening, she and her sisters learned that one could lose what they held most dear in the world. Since then, she has been haunted by the fear of seeing those she loves disappear. And she has learned to keep her desires and fears to herself.

Edith thinks she’s strange; therefore, she hides. Until the day when, on a commuter train, opposite a girl with wildly curly hair, she discovers another kind of love—fierce, joyful, breathtaking.

But the stories lovers tell each other resonate with those created by their inner child to confront death. Is happiness possible when it battles ancient terrors, memories of a childhood marked by sorrow? Love is frightening before one can perhaps mourn the past.

Certain Fevers Escape Mercury is the story of a magnificent encounter. Or when gentleness triumphs over adversity. An enchanting grace.