Change of Heart Read online

  Praise for Jodi Picoult and Change of Heart

  'Poignant with a Picoult twist'--Style Magazine

  'Jodi mesmerizes and enthralls readers in a story of justice, love and redemption'--www.radiochick.co.nz

  '[Picoult] keeps you hanging on to the end'--Canberra Times

  'If you read her first page, you'll read the last'--New Idea

  'It is impossible not to be held spellbound'--Washington Post

  'A master of the craft of storytelling'--AP Newswire

  'Picoult has become a master--almost a clairvoyant--at targeting hot issues and writing highly readable page-turners about them'--Washington Post

  'When it comes to the freeze-frame of a family caught in the headlights of loss and irreversible regret, Picoult has no equal'--Jacquelyn Mitchard 'The worlds Picoult creates for her characters resonate with authenticity, and the people who inhabit them are so engrossing'--People

  'A brilliantly told tale'--People

  'Picoult writes with a fine touch, a sharp eye for detail and a firm grasp of the delicacy and complexity of human relationships'--Boston Globe

  'Picoult has the true storyteller's ability to evoke a world on the page and pull the reader into it'--Women's Review of Books

  'Picoult's writing is superb and the characters are vividly drawn'--Daily Telegraph

  Change of Heart

  ALSO BY JODI PICOULT

  Nineteen Minutes

  The Tenth Circle

  Vanishing Acts

  My Sister's Keeper

  Second Glance

  Perfect Match

  Salem Falls

  Plain Truth

  Keeping Faith

  The Pact

  Mercy

  Picture Perfect

  Harvesting the Heart

  Songs of the Humpback Whale

  JODI PICOULT

  Change of Heart

  This edition published in 2009

  First published in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin in 2008

  First published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  Copyright (c) Jodi Picoult 2008

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

  Allen & Unwin

  83 Alexander Street

  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

  Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218

  Email: [email protected]

  Web: www.allenandunwin.com

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Picoult, Jodi, 1966—

  Change of heart / Jodi Picoult.

  9781741757613 (pbk.)

  Murderers--Fiction. Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc.--Fiction.

  Repentance--Fiction.

  813.54

  Printed in Australia by McPherson's Printing Group 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  With love, and too much admiration to fit on these

  pages

  To my grandfather, Hal Friend, who has

  always been brave enough to question what we

  believe ...

  And to my grandmother, Bess Friend,

  who has never stopped believing in me.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Writing this book was its own form of miracle; it's very hard to write about religion responsibly, and that means taking the time to find the right people to answer your questions. For their time and their knowledge, I must thank Lori Thompson, Rabbi Lina Zerbarini, Father Peter Duganscik, Jon Saltzman, Katie Desmond, Claire Demarais, and Pastor Ted Brayman. Marjorie Rose and Joan Collison were willing to theorize about religion whenever I brought it up. Elaine Pagels is a brilliant author herself and one of the smartest women I've ever spoken with--I chased her down and begged her for a private tutorial on the Gnostic Gospels, one of her academic specialties, and would hang up the phone after each conversation with my mind buzzing and a thousand more questions to explore--surely something the Gnostics would have heartily endorsed.

  Jennifer Sternick is still the attorney I'd want fighting for me, no matter what, Chris Keating provides legal information for me at blistering speed, and Chris Johnson's expertise on the appeals process for death penalty cases was invaluable.

  Thanks to the medical team that didn't mind when I asked how to kill someone, instead of how to save them--among other things: Dr. Paul Kispert, Dr. Elizabeth Martin, Dr. David Axelrod, Dr. Vijay Thadani, Dr. Jeffrey Parsonnet, Dr. Mary Kay Wolfson, Barb Danson, James Belanger. Jacquelyn Mitchard isn't a doc, but a wonderful writer who gave me the nuts and bolts of LD kids. And a special thank-you to Dr. Jenna Hirsch, who was so generous with her knowledge of cardiac surgery.

  Thanks to Sindy Buzzell, and Kurt Feuer, for their individual expertise. Getting to death row was a significant challenge. My New Hampshire law enforcement contacts included Police Chief Nick Giaccone, Captain Frank Moran, Kim Lacasse, Unit Manager Tim Moquin, Lieutenant Chris Shaw, and Jeff Lyons, PIO of the New Hampshire State Prison. For finessing my trip to the Arizona State Prison Florence, thanks to Sergeant Janice Mallaburn, Deputy Warden Steve Gal, CO II Dwight Gaines, and Judy Frigo (former warden). Thanks also to Rachel Gross and Dale Baich. However, this book would not be what it was without the prisoners who opened up to me both in person and via mail: Robert Purtell, a former death row inmate; Samuel Randolph, currently on death row in Pennsylvania; and Robert Towery, currently on death row in Arizona.

  Thanks to my dream team at Atria: Carolyn Reidy, Judith Curr, David Brown, Danielle Lynn, Mellony Torres, Kathleen Schmidt, Sarah Branham, Laura Stern, Gary Urda, Lisa Keim, Christine Duplessis, and everyone else who has worked so hard on my behalf. Thanks to Camille McDuffie--who was so determined to make people stop asking "Jodi Who?" and who exceeded my expectations beyond my wildest dreams. To my favorite first reader, Jane Picoult, who I was fortunate enough to get as a mom. To Laura Gross, without whom I'd be completely adrift. To Emily Bestler, who is just so damn good at making me look brilliant.

  And of course, thanks to Kyle, Jake, Sammy--who keep me asking the questions that might make the world a better place--and Tim, who makes it possible for me to do that. It just doesn't get better than all of you, all of this.

  Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said.

  "One can't believe impossible things."

  "I dare say you haven't had as much practice," said

  the Queen. "When I was your age I did it for half

  an hour a day. Why sometimes I've believed as

  many as six impossible things before breakfast."

  --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

  PROLOGUE: 1996

  June

  |||||||||||||||||||||||||

  In the beginning, I believed in second chances. How else could I account for the fact that years ago, right after the accident--when the smoke cleared and the car had stopped tumbling end over end to rest upside down in a ditch--I was still alive; I could hear Elizabeth, my little girl, crying? The police officer who had pulled me out of the car rode with me to the hospital to have my broken leg set, with Elizabeth--completely unhurt, a miracle--sitting on his lap the whole time. He'd held my hand when I was taken to identify my husband Jack's body. He came to the funeral. He show