Salvation or Revenge, that is the Question

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	• Change of Heart: A Novel Jodi Picoult Atria, 2008 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 183 reviews view larger image
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Intriguing.

This is another good Jodi Picoult book. I have read most of her novels and enjoy each one for her ability to give us interesting characters and hot-button issues that get us, her readers, to think about things in a new light. This book is no exception.

Shay is a man on death row who is waiting to be executed for the killing of a police officer and his daughter. June, the mother of the child who was killed and now a widow, has another daughter who has serious heart problems. Shay offers to give up his heart once he is executed, however he will need to die by another means and not by lethal injection which is where the lawyer, Maggie, enters into the picture.

One of the interesting concepts in this story is that Shay does not appear to be just another inmate. He seems to be able to perform miracles as in making another inmate's HIV disappear, bringing a bird back to life, etc. Is he truly the Messiah or is this all a scam to try and prolong his life?

This book explores religious themes, relationships between mothers and daughters, the death penalty and what it truly means to have a heart.

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Amazing Book

This is by far my favorite book. The story is very captivating and keeps you guessing till the very end. I would recommend it to men and women alike absolutely amazing!!

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Entertaining, but not Believable

As a Jodi Picoult fan, I found this novel interesting and easy to read. Picoult writes about a variety of difficult and controversial subjects and this book is no exception. Shay Bourne, a convicted murderer with a scheduled execution, wants to donate his heart to the dying 11 year old sister of one of his victims. The novel is narrated in turn by a fellow death row prisoner, a priest who counsels Shay, Shay's attorney, and the mother of Shay's victim. They all view Shay in a different light and as they each tell their story, the novel progresses to the execution date. Will the family accept Shay's heart? Will Shay's attorney win a landmark ruling to allow a change in method of execution? What about the "miracles" that have started to occur on Death Row? Will the priest reveal his secret of how he knew of Shay years earlier? And what did Shay mean by his mysterious comment to his victim's mother?
If you can suspend belief as to how a language/learning disabled man can communicate as articulately and profoundly as Shay often does, it is a worthwhile book. Some of the plot lines (Maggie's romance, June's reaction to Shay's revelation) were tied up too simply and neatly to be believable. I enjoyed the narratives of the priest and the fellow prisoner who seemed the most realistic of all characters. As usual, Picoult's topic will make you think.

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Salvation or Revenge, that is the Question

June lost her husband in an auto accident that left her with a broken leg. The police officer, Kurt Nealon, who tells her of her husband's death, later becomes husband number two and stepfather to June's daughter. Life should be good for June now as she's expecting another daughter. But she's hired a handyman carpenter, thirty-three-year old Isaiah M. Bourne, who instead of being grateful for the work, kills Kurt, then molests and kills June's daughter.

Eleven years later, Bourne is on death row and wants to make amends by donating his heart to June's new daughter Elizabeth, who is suffering with pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy. He believes if he gives his heart to the dying sister of the girl he murdered that he'll find salvation, which is the last thing June wants, but she doesn't want Elizabeth to die either.

And even though Bourne wants to die, he needs an attorney, because he wants death by hanging, not the needle, as that would damage the heart. His attorney, a woman with her own problems, has more than a client who wants salvation on her hands as weird and strange things have been going on on death row. One day the prison taps started flowing with wine. Borne brings a dead bird back to life. He cures a fellow prisoner of aids. Is there a message in his name which when pronounced comes out as I Am Born? And he is a thirty-three-year old carpenter about to be put to death, what is the significance of that?

There are man who come to believe Bourne might just be the Messiah, including Father Michael, his spiritual advisor, who, before he became a priest, just happened to be one of the jurors who voted to condemn Bourne.

As you can see there is a lot going on in this book and I've just scratched the surface. Suffice it to say, as improbable and impossible as some of this sounds, when Jodi Picoult delivers it, you believe. I know I did. I couldn't put this one down and even now, I'm asking myself, what would I do were I June, let the killer have his salvation or let him save my daughter?

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