The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Happy Birthday, over-the-moon :-)

Received for my birthday, a Picoult I have not yet read! An extra surprise when I opened it was to see one of my own labels on the inside cover - my books, mug and clock! Really looking forward to reading it, thank you Meg72!

A few weeks ago I was chuntering because I read three books in succession where the plot jumped around forwards and backwards in time. This one is different, it starts at 5pm and each chapter is an hour earlier - the whole story backwards. I was often tempted to go to the last chapter and read everything in chronological order - but as there was an Epilogue at the end (not at the beginning!) I carried on valiantly. And finally, after the last chapter, I was glad I did so and understood why it was written this way. And finally we understand the title, a spark of light.

The setting is an American women's clinic, offering counselling, help with birth control, and abortions, to anyone in need. It is beleaguered by a group of pro-life activists who spend their days outside handing out "blessing bags" to the patients and practically accusing them of murder - which it is, actually, by law in some cases. The otherwise normal day at the clinic is brutally interrupted by a gunman who has just found his daughter practically bleeding to death after self-medicating. His actions affect a range of women from all kinds of backgrounds, present for many different reasons.

Picoult has done extensive research and studies the situation and characters from all angles, personal, moral, religious, legal, political, statistical. In the interesting Author's Note, where she mentions the women she interviewed who had terminated pregnancies, she says that the majority thought about the abortion daily. One is quoted as saying "I don't need people shaming me because of a choice that already hurt my heart to have to make". No one wants to have to do this.

A very thought-provoking read.

mailing to UK

Thank you so much for the wonderful birthday package. I can't wait to try all the different 4c flavourings - they all look so scrummy. As does the Ruby chocolate - Yum Yum!

Well, this took rather a long time to get into. The author has chosen to tell the story backwards - it starts with a hostage negotiator standing off with a gunman at a Women's Health clinic in Mississippi. Each subsequent chapter than jumps BACK an hour. Confused? To start with, very - it's hard to get used to a backwards narrative and there's no real development of character - just maybe a greater understanding by the reader.

The story builds up to two big twists in the penultimate chapter - one is very obvious (or maybe so for us English, who are used to Lilbet being a shortened version of Elizabeth), but the other was a genuine surprise.

Of course, there is a political thread running through this book - and it probably doesn't matter whether you're Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, you can still enjoy the read. However, I think everyone should read the Author's Note at the end, as she does a really good job of addressing both sides of the abortion issue. Again, being English, I had no idea of some of the rules and attitudes in the US about contraception and poverty laws, health care and other associated issues. But the idea that if these were tackled instead, the whole abortion issue might no longer exist. Definitely food for thought.

Happy Birthday

Received as a birthday RABCK. Thank you.

An enjoyable, thought provoking read.
Left on table near the beach at Haven.