Frederick Langlois could be that geeky 17-year-old found in every high school the one who closely clutches his poem-filled notebook, who feels a bit too deeply, who s just a little too old for his years. But Frederick isn t in high school. He s in a hospital ward with other critically ill adolescents, dying of bone cancer. Mercury Under the Tongue chronicles his short stay there, from his distant but friendly relationship with his therapist through comic moments in the ward and his emergent friendships with other teenage patients. Some survive, others are lost, and at the end,...