Summary: (Taken from jodipicoult.com) When Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe’s daughter, Willow, is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, they are devastated – she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. As the family struggles to make ends meet to cover Willow’s medical expenses, Charlotte thinks she has found an answer. If she files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, the monetary payouts might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. But it means that Charlotte has to get up in a court of law and say in public that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance – words that her husband can’t abide, that Willow will hear, and that Charlotte cannot reconcile. And the ob/gyn she’s suing isn’t just her physician – it’s her best friend.
Review: I have an issue with Jodi Picoult. All her books are the same. And yet I keep reading them. And I confess, sort of liking them. This book was no different. It alternated voices every chapter, it included the lawyer’s story which I didn’t care about and it had the big melodramatic courtroom scene. It also had the “unpredictable” ending which I saw coming from a mile away. But somehow, damn you Jodi Picoult, I feel for the characters. I loved little Willow, although I didn’t for one second believe she was only five years old. I understood Charlotte’s sacrifice for her daughter and her husband’s unwillingness to go along with it. And yes, I teared up in the end when we finally hear little Willow’s voice. So even though her books are formulaic and predictable, I would have to say it is a formula which may appeal to the masses.
I am re-reading Wuthering Heights all because of this cover. I couldn’t resist it. And Heathcliff….. don’t even get me started on him.
State of Denmark 