Play Book Tag discussion

Jodi Picoult’s novels tackle controversial topics. Change of Heart examines restorative justice and the death penalty. As we begin this book, we learn that June has just lost her husband in a car accident. The policeman who tells her about the accident later becomes her husband. When June is pregnant with her second child, an itinerant carpenter, Shay Bourne, appears offers to do some repairs the home. Before the baby is born, Shay has murdered June’s second husband and daughter. He is convicted and given the death penalty. A young man named Michael Wright is the last hold-out on the jury to condemn Shay to the death penalty.

Fast forward 11 years, and Shay has exhausted all of his appeals and a date for his execution by lethal injection has been set. Shay has been moved to a portion of the State prison for dangerous prisoners. Michael is now a Catholic priest and June and her daughter, Claire, with her policeman husband is now 11 years old. Claire has a medical condition and needs a heart transplant.

Shay wants to donate his heart to Claire believing that it will bring him redemption. Lethal injection, however, will render the heart unusable. Enter Maggie, an ACLU attorney, who determines that the law will allow the State to execute Shay by hanging, thus preserve the heart for transplant.

The novel it told through many voices ~ Michael, the priest who becomes Shay's spiritual advisor, Maggie, the attorney, June, and Lucius, a fellow prisoner. While Shay is spending his final months before his execution, a number of “miracles” seemingly occur. Is Shay the messiah? The book is a discussion of the death penalty in theological terms.

I really enjoyed the debate of this novel.