New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult has unveiled her latest provocative novel expected to be released later this year.
A powerful and thought-provoking book, A Spark of Light discusses ordinary lives that intersect during a heart-stopping crisis, as well as social controversies surrounding abortion.
The author of 24 internationally bestselling novels, including My Sister’s Keeper and The Storyteller, centres her latest novel on a shooting in a woman’s reproductive health clinic.
Nurses, staff, patients and visitors are held hostage by a lone gunman while on the outside demonstrators barricade the building.
Rushing to the scene is police hostage negotiator Hugh McElroy, who is later horrified to learn that his 15-year-old daughter Wren is inside the clinic.
However, the teenager is not alone as she is locked indoors with a number of memorable characters such as a pro-life protester disguised as a patient, a nurse who tries to save an injured woman and a doctor who sacrifices his faith for his profession.
Each chapter moves backwards an hour earlier in time, unravelling the identities of the medical centre’s staff, the female patients, the shooter, and the hostage negotiator outside the building – illustrating the intricate way in which their lives all intertwine.
The gripping story is scheduled to be on shelves on October 2, anticipating a tumultuous welcome from readers.
Picoult, aged 52, is a number one New York Times bestselling author of 24 novels, which typically delve into moral dilemmas and tragedies.
The American author, born in New York, has released approximately 14 million copies of her books worldwide which have been translated into 34 languages.
Small Great Things, her most recent novel, is being adapted into a feature film starring popular starlets Viola Davis and Julia Roberts.