Sing You Home: In Her New Novel, Sing You Home, Bestselling Author Jodi Picoult Tough Questions: Are Embryos People Or Property? What Challenges Do Same-Sex Couples Face when It Comes to Marriage and Adoption? What Happens when Religion and Sexual Orientation Enter the Courtroom? and Most Importantly, What Constitutes a "Traditional" Family in Today's Day and Age?(Excerpt)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Zoe Baxter's history of infertility and unsuccessful in vitro fertilization culminates in a final miscarriage and the subsequent breakup of her marriage to Max. To cope, she refocuses her career as a music therapist working with recovering, troubled, and dying patients. An acquaintance, Vanessa, asks her to counsel a suicidal teen at the high school where Vanessa is a guidance counselor. The two become friends, and when Zoe realizes that her feelings for Vanessa have become romantic, she begins to entertain the prospect once more of having a family with a partner she loves. Zoe and Max's unused frozen embryos could be the opportunity for Zoe and her new partner to raise a child together, however Max gets swept up in the crusade of an evangelical church that fervently campaigns for "traditional family values" under the leadership of its zealously anti-gay pastor. Picoult exhibits the challenges that same-sex couples face in the midst of pursuing love, family, relationships, and respect in Sing You Home.