Harvesting the Heart
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3.9 • 79 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who left when she was five. 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. But her mother's absence, and shameful memories of her past, make her doubt both her maternal ability and her sense of self-worth.
Out of Paige's struggle to find wholeness by searching for her mother and facing her own insecurities, Jodi Picoult crafts an absorbing novel peopled with richly drawn characters. Any mother - or child - cannot help but relate to the issues and emotions explored within this powerful and moving book.
'Jodi Picoult explores the fragile ground of ambivalent motherhood in her lush second novel.' - New York Times Book Review
'Reminiscent of Sue Miller's The Good Mother, Harvesting the Heart has a voice all its own.' - Chicago Tribune
Jodi Picoult's bestselling and widely acclaimed novels include Second Glance, Perfect Match, Nineteen Minutes, Keeping Faith and The Pact. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Read more about Jodi Picoult on her website at www.jodipicoult.com.au
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Picoult ( Songs of the Humpback Whales ) brings her considerable talents to this contemporary story of a young woman in search of her identity. Abandoned by her mother when she was five years old, Paige O'Toole has been left with painful doubts about her self-worth. She leaves her Chicago home for Cambridge, Mass., at 18 to fulfill herself as an artist, but must work in a diner because she can't afford art school. When she marries Harvard medical student Nicholas Prescott, his parents disown him, disapproving of their Irish Catholic daughter-in-law. Again Paige is forced to sideline her creative needs and work as a waitress in order to support Nicholas until he is able to establish his career as a cardiac surgeon. Paige is soon overwhelmed by the demands of Nicholas's socially sophisticated world, and after the birth of their son, Max, she becomes emotionally and physically exhausted. Unable to communicate her terrors about herself to Nicholas, she leaves him to search for her mother, who may hold the answers to her life. Told in flashbacks, this is a realistic story of childhood and adolescence, the demands of motherhood, the hard paths of personal growth and the generosity of spirit required by love. Picoult's imagery is startling and brilliant; her characters move credibly through this affecting drama. ( Nov. )
Customer Reviews
Wonderful
Beautiful as always
Gripping
As usual this book like all of Jodi Picoult's was gripping, it sucked me in from the first page. I could not put it down, forcing me to read well into the early hours of the morning right to the end. Needing to know what was going to happen, but when I got to the end, I felt I was left hanging. I needed to know more.
Unfortunately I was left with too many questions unanswered. I was so engrossed in the characters lives that I felt that it ended too abruptly and the story was not finished ... Not sure there was a happy ending or not, I was left with speculation and too many possible outcomes.
Loved the book but in the end was bitter sweet.
Such a beautifully written story
This book is so well written, You can relate to every character in this story