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Summary and Reviews of A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

A Spark of Light

by Jodi Picoult
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
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  • First Published:
  • Oct 2, 2018, 384 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Sep 2019, 400 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

A powerful and provocative new novel about ordinary lives that intersect during a heart-stopping crisis.

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center - a women's reproductive health services clinic - its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order to save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester, disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

Jodi Picoult—one of the most fearless writers of our time—tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation ... and, hopefully, understanding.

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

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Picoult's nuanced exploration of multiple vantage points surrounding the abortion issue is to be commended. Her thorough research and careful construction of plot are apparent, and she explores these divisive issues with sensitivity and tact...continued

Full Review (703 words)

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(Reviewed by Karen Lewis).

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Beyond the Book



The History of the Condom

Linen condom with instruction manual manufactured by Italian physician Gabriele FallopioWomen's health clinics like the one depicted in A Spark of Light offer many services beyond abortion, including providing access to pregnancy prevention tools like condoms. The condom is arguably the oldest pregnancy prevention method used by men that's still widely used today, albeit its early popularity was more to do with protecting against venereal diseases than for birth control. It's not the earliest form of birth prevention on record though; that honor goes to the pessary with records from 1850 BC showing Egyptian women using a combination of crocodile dung, honey and sodium carbonate to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Some historians believe that condom usage can be traced back to the ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilizations...

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