Change of Heart (novel)
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| Change of Heart | |
 Hardcover USA edition |
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| Author | Jodi Picoult |
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| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date | March 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 447 |
| ISBN | ISBN 9780743496742 |
Change of Heart (2008) is a novel by Jodi Picoult about the first New Hampshire death row prisoner in 69 years. He wants to donate his heart after his execution to the sister of his victim who is in need of a transplant.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
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[edit] Prologue
June and her husband Jack are in a car accident. Jack dies, policeman Kurt helps June and eventually they marry and prepare for birth of a daughter. During the building of an addition to their house their contractor leaves, leaving them with a hole in a wall and rain leaking through the attic ceiling. Shay Bourne arrives one day and is hired to work. One day after June's eighth month ultrasound she arrives home to find Kurt and Elizabeth shot. Shay is charged with their murders.
[edit] The trial
The jury convicts Shay of two counts of capital murder. The jury then deliberate on the death penalty. Eventuallly they all agree with Michael being the last juror to agree on the death penalty.
[edit] Eleven Years later
Shay Bourne is transferred to the I-tier at the Concord state prison. Shay is in the cell next to Lucuis DuFeesne an artist with HIV who killed his gay lover. During the night Shay tells Lucius the he wants to donate his heart to a little girl that he sees on TV.
Michael the juror has become the junior priest at a parish in Concord, New Hampshire.
Back in the I-tier there is a strange incident with wine flowing through the toilet pipes. Shay's final appeal is denied and his execution date is set, two and a half months away. He fights with Maggie as his lawyer for the right to be hanged instead of lethal injection because he wants to give Claire his heart.
Calloway is covertly caring for a bird (Batman the Robin) in his cell. He plays a game of chess with Shay where the stakes are Shay's brownie and Calloway's bird. Guards come in and search Calloway's cell and the bird is tossed across the cell and killed. Shay still wants his winnings and after the dead bird is given to Shay (in his cell out of sight) the bird comes back to life.
Claire is in the hospital as she has been told that they have a heart available for transplant. But the heart had a bad right ventricle. Michael while saying Mass drops a consecrated host into the wine and sees a vision of himself on the host.
Back in the I-teir Shay gives gum to all the men on the ward even though he says he has only one piece. When Lucius chews it the sores in his mouth no longer hurts, he sleeps through the night for the first time in 6 months and when he wakes his AIDS appears to be gone. The news makes it to the media and people and news crews come to the state prison, many believing that Shay is the Messiah.
When Claire first sees a photo of Shay on TV she keeps repeating "I remember him." Michael visits Shay in prison and Shay tells him the he specifically wants to donate his heart to Claire. Maggie arrives and becomes Shay's lawyer. Maggie finds that in the New Hampshire death penalty code it states that an inmate can be hanged if the commissioner finds it impractical to carry out the sentence of death by lethal injection. Michael investigates the supposed miracles and finds that Lucuis' irreparable damage to his brain caused by the HIV has been reversed.
[edit] Characters in Change of Heart
- June Nealon - Mother of Elizabeth and Claire, husband of Jack and Kurt
- Elizabeth Nealon - June's daughter by Jack, her first husband
- Kurt Nealon - policeman at accident, then June's husband
- Claire Nealon- Kurt and June's daughter, needs a new heart
- Shay Bourne - murderer of Kurt and Elizabeth
- Michael - UNH college student, member of the jury, priest
- Ted - jury foreman
- Lucius DuFeesne - Prisoner in the state prison in Concord. He has HIV, is an artist and has the cell adjacent to Shay. Lucius is in prison because he killed his lover, Adam in a fit of jealous rage.
- Alma - prison nurse
- Calloway - white-Supremist prisoner in the I-tier
- Maggie- ACLU lawyer
- Oliver - Maggie's pet rabbit
- Dudley- June and Claire's 13 year old Springer Spaniel
[edit] Literary significance and reception
Publishers Weekly in their review said that "Picoult bangs out another ripped-from-the-zeitgeist winner. Picoult moves the story along with lively debates about prisoner rights and religion, while plumbing the depths of mother-daughter relationships and examining the literal and metaphorical meanings of having heart. The point-of-view switches are abrupt, but this is a small flaw in an impressive book".[1]
Donna Seaman reviewing in Booklist says that it is a "a compulsively readable saga and dramatic critique of capital punishment". She compares Change of Heart to The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. And that the novel is "Laced with intriguing musings on the Gnostic Gospels, Picoult’s bold story of loss, justice, redemption, and faith reminds us how tragically truth can be concealed and denied."[2]
[edit] Publication history
- 2008, USA, Simon & Schuster ISBN 9780743496742, ISBN-10: 0743496744, Pub Date 04 March 2008, Hardcover
- 2008, USA, Recorded Books ISBN 978-1428198173, Audio CD
- 2008, UK, Hodder & Stoughton ISBN 978-0340935811, Pub Date 17 April 2008, Hardcover
- 2008, Australia, Allen & Unwin ISBN 978-1-7417-5496-4, Hardcover
- 2008, Australia, Allen & Unwin ISBN 978-1-7417-5073-7, Paperback
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
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