Harvesting the Heart
A Novel
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4.1 • 694 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name, a novel exploring the story of a young woman overcome by the demands of having a family.
Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who abandoned her at five years old. 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 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.
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. 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.
“A brilliant, moving examination of motherhood, brimming with detail and emotion.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Jodi Picoult explores the fragile ground of ambivalent motherhood in her lush second novel. This story belongs to… the lucky reader.” —The New York Times Book Review
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
This is yet another adictively reader by Jodi
I love this book, like some movies it takes time to get to the best part, but Jodi Picoult never fails! I enjoy her style of writing. I suggest anyone in any relationship could take away something from this book. Great read:))))
Captivating
Following the lives of Paige and her parents as well as Nicholas and his parents is absorbing and intense. I enjoyed the read so much!
Just don’t
None of the characters are likable. Normally I like a drama, but this was cheesy and at times wildly boring.