If there had been a dust jacket I imagine it would’ve went something like this: (at least if I had written it) I’m going to try to summarize the book very quickly. Fortunately I assumed she must have been having an “off” month when she wrote this because it was TERRIBLE. If this had been my first Jodi Picoult novel, chances are it would’ve been my last. Boy, was I wrong…very, very wrong! In fact, this was up there with one of the WORST books I’ve ever read. The book jacket for Harvesting the Heart didn’t describe what it was about, but given the author I knew I’d like it. She puts “stories” behind these issues & makes you think about these topics, how would you react if you were the shooters mom, the caretaker of a cloned child, or the sibling of a kidnapped victim. Jodi Picoult writes about hot, current topics in a fictional way (suicide, stem cell research, kidnappings, murders, school shootings etc), topics that are unfortunately all to common. 75 at a library book sale AND I had never read it, it was all I could do to hold back the squeals & not make a complete fool out of myself. Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors, so when I found this novel for. This story belongs to… the lucky reader.” - The New York Times Book Review “Jodi Picoult explores the fragile ground of ambivalent motherhood in her lush second novel. “A brilliant, moving examination of motherhood, brimming with detail and emotion.” - Richmond Times-Dispatch Out of Paige's struggle to find wholeness, Jodi Picoult crafts an absorbing novel peopled by richly drawn characters, and explores motherhood with a power and depth only she is capable of. Harvesting the Heart is written with astonishing clarity and evocative detail, convincing in its depiction of emotional pain, love, and vulnerability, and recalls the writing of Alice Hoffman and Kristin Hannah.

But her mother's absence and shameful memories of her past force her to doubt whether she could ever be capable of bringing joy and meaning into the life of her child, gifts her own mother never gave. Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own. From the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Leaving Time Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who abandoned her at five years old.

Harvesting the heart by jodi picoult