A Hell of Mercy
By Tim Farrington
128 pages; HarperOne

Armed with Saint John of the Cross' mystical treatise The Dark Night of the Soul and the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, writer Tim Farrington decided to confront the beast of depression that was eating him alive. A Hell of Mercy is an unsoppy meditation by a man who—though marginally devout—came to rely on the 16th-century saint's humble and hard-nosed spirituality (a dose of Effexor didn't hurt, either). Laced with wry jokes and anecdotes, like the most accessible teachings, this volume is a healing gift.