Earlier this year, I attended a conversation with Jodi Picoult and Emily Giffin as part of the book tour for A Spark of Light. Earlier that day, Brett Kavanaugh had been confirmed to the Supreme Court. A significant part of the conversation was about the accusations against Justice Kavanaugh, and the implications for Roe V Wade with Kavanaugh on the court. The air was heavy.

My book club discussed A Spark of Light Monday night, while our state legislature was debating one of the most restrictive anti-choice bills in the country. That bill passed by a single vote on Friday. It’s somehow fitting that these two events bookended my reading this book.

“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 crosshairs 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.”

Publisher’s Summary, Amazon

I find Jodi Picoult’s books are nearly always able to spark (no pun intended) discussion. And this one is no different. From the way she tells this story -from end to beginning- to the subject matter, there’s a lot to talk about.

The ending to beginning approach was interesting. At times it was confusing. I had to stop and think about the sequence of events (and ladies in my book club agreed) but it was a different way of telling the story, of unraveling “how did we get to this point?”

As is typical of Picoult in any of her books involving controversy, she humanizes all the characters. I won’t say I felt empathy for the shooter, but Picoult did show him as a flawed, sad, angry man who was clearly hurting.

Picoult shows both sides of the abortion discussion in a mature way, bringing authentic viewpoints from both sides of the issue. No character is a caricature. The level of research Picoult did about the subject shows, too. For something so divisive, I think that’s incredibly important.

Add to that a couple of other twists (one I saw coming, and one I didn’t) and you have a fast-paced story that may challenge what you think about an important issue that touches more people than you realize.

I was afraid at the end that Picoult was going to leave us hanging about exactly who survives, but she doesn’t. I was very glad of that.

This is one I recommend.