https://www.morgensternbooks.com/events.html
Author Alex Mar will speak at Morgenstern’s bookstore:
Thu Apr 13th 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Morgenstern Books, 849 S Auto Mall Rd, Bloomington, IN 47401, USA
Join author Alex Mar in discussing her new book, SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN: A True Story of Murder and Mercy
A masterful, revelatory work of literary non-fiction about a teenage girl’s shocking crime—and its extraordinary aftermath
On a spring afternoon in 1985 in Gary, Indiana, a fifteen-year-old girl kills an elderly woman in a violent home invasion. In a city with a history of racial tensions and white flight, the girl, Paula Cooper, is Black, and her victim, Ruth Pelke, is white and a beloved Bible teacher. The press swoops in.
When Paula is sentenced to death, no one decries the impending execution of a tenth grader. But the tide begins to shift when the victim’s grandson Bill forgives the girl, against the wishes of his family, and campaigns to spare her life. This tragedy in a midwestern steel town soon reverberates across the United States and around the world—reaching as far away as the Vatican—as newspapers cover the story on their front pages and millions sign petitions in support of Paula.
As Paula waits on death row, her fate sparks a debate that not only animates legal circles but raises vital questions about the value of human life: What are we demanding when we call for justice? Is forgiveness an act of desperation or of profound bravery? As Bill and Paula’s friendship deepens, and as Bill discovers others who have chosen to forgive after terrible violence, their story asks us to consider what radical acts of empathy we might be capable of.
In Seventy Times Seven, Alex Mar weaves an unforgettable narrative of an act of violence and its aftermath. This is a story about the will to live—to survive, to grow, to change—and about what we are willing to accept as justice. Tirelessly researched and told with intimacy and precision, this book brings a haunting chapter in the history of our criminal justice system to astonishing life.
Reviews:
“An engrossing study of faith, forgiveness, and justice . . . Deeply reported and vividly written, this is a harrowing and thought-provoking portrait of crime and punishment.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Mar’s expansive, humanitarian legal history is also an investigation of belief . . . This is an unsettling look at the recent past and a profoundly affecting read.” —Booklist (starred review)
“A probing examination of the intersection of race, crime, and punishment.” —Kirkus
“A tautly written, wholly empathic work that will stay with you long after you’ve read it.” —Vol. 1 Brooklyn
Alex Mar is the author of Witches of America, which was a New York Times Notable Book of
2015. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, Wired, The New York Times Book Review, and The Guardian, among many other outlets, as well as The Best American Magazine Writing. She was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Feature Writing in 2018. She is also the director of the feature-length documentary American Mystic. She lives in the Hudson Valley and New York City.
Colleen Boyle McGarvey
Assistant Director of Publicity
Penguin Press
267-280-7454
SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN: A True Story of Murder and Mercy by Alex Mar
Hilary Mantel praised the book: “An absorbing work of social history and a story about the mystery and miracle of forgiveness. This is a book of awesome scope, and it deserves to be read with attention.”
Rolling Stone has a stunning excerpt from the book on their website. Here is a video interview with Alex Mar: https://youtu.be/MhvDnNbxIKw
Reviews
“Riveting . . . [Mar] chronicles Cooper’s case with sensitivity and addresses challenges of juvenile punishment with insight . . . A probing and moving book.” —The Wall Street Journal
“[An] intimate and highly sympathetic account. Anyone moved by Bryan Stevenson’s memoir, Just Mercy, will find Mar’s book a compelling companion piece on the issue of crime and punishment in America. It’s a story that beautifully marries tragedy and hope, illuminating some of the worst and best of which human beings are capable.” —BookPage
“An engrossing study of faith, forgiveness, and justice. . . . Deeply reported and vividly written, [Seventy Times Seven] is a harrowing and thought-provoking portrait of crime and punishment.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Mar’s expansive, humanitarian legal history is also an investigation of belief. . . . This is an unsettling look at the recent past and a profoundly affecting read.” —Booklist (starred review)
“The only way this country will ever free itself of the moral stain that is capital punishment is through stories like the one Mar tells in Seventy Times Seven: of individual compassion and moral courage.” —Jonny Diamond, Literary Hub
About SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN
On a spring afternoon in 1985 in Gary, Indiana, a fifteen-year-old girl kills an elderly woman in a violent home invasion. When Paula Cooper is sentenced to death, no one decries the impending execution of a tenth grader. But the tide begins to shift when the victim’s grandson Bill forgives the girl, against the wishes of his family, and campaigns to spare her life.
This tragedy in a midwestern steel town soon reverberates across the United States and around the world—reaching as far away as the Vatican—as newspapers cover the story on their front pages and millions sign petitions in support of Paula.
As Paula waits on death row, her fate sparks a debate that not only animates legal circles but raises vital questions about the value of human life: What are we demanding when we call for justice? Is forgiveness an act of desperation or of profound bravery?
Mar’s work is a feat of narrative reporting, based on five years of research, hundreds of hours of interviews with over 80 individuals; thousands of pages of documents, unpublished letters and emails, newspaper features and photographs; and dozens of hours of archival footage.
