Richard Seltzer

Parallel Lives Richard Seltzer

The story, which begins in an assisted-living facility in New Hampshire, leads to 18th century Boston and London, where there may be unfinished business that residents, through mirror selves, must take care of. As Abe, Mercy, and their friends come under the influence of forces they don't understand, they adopt antique attire, get drunk on two-hundred-year-old wine, and become experts in the lives of their other selves. In their alter egos, Mercy is Mercy Otis Warren, playwright and historian from Massachusetts at the time of the American Revolution; and Abe is Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne, the general who at Saratoga lost the battle that led to England losing the war and who then became one of the most popular playwrights on the London stage. After dreams of what their other selves did and could have done, Mercy and Abe discover a tunnel in the basement that leads to other places and other times, where they could accidentally or deliberately change the course of history.