It did change my heart

June's first husband died in an accident, leaving her a few months pregnant. She turns to Kurt Nealon, a celebrated police officer who ends up becoming everything for her. She gives birth to her first daughter, Elizabeth (from her first marriage) and is later pregnant again with Kurt's child. They employ an introvert carpenter, Shay Bourne to undertake some repairs at their house. One day, when June returns home from the doctor, she finds Kurt and Elizabeth dead with Shay holding the murder weapon, Kurt's service arm. Shay is convicted to death for the gruesome double murder.

Michael is a student. And he's called on for jury duty for Shay's trial. The jury convicts him unanimously, with Michael being the last to vote guilty. Years later, Michael, now a priest, is called on as Shay's spiritual counsellor in prison.

Maggie is an agnostic radical born to a deeply devout rabbi and an overbearing mother. She's on an ACLU panel and ends up taking Shay's appeal against the death penalty in court.

Shay's arrival at a particular section of the prison heralds the advent of seemingly impossible miracles. And he gets a fan following who look up to him as a messiah.

Now back to June. June's second daughter, Claire, is diagnosed with a severe heart condition that won't allow her to live for more than a few months unless she gets a heart transplant. Shay sees this on the news and volunteers to donate his heart.

This is the basic plot skeleton of Jodi Picoult's new novel Change of Heart. And by the looks of it, one might deduce that it'll be a mundane courtroom drama, with a few dollops of emotion thrown in. But Picoult makes it into a magnum opus - a classic debate on the death penalty, religion and morality with her skillful spin on the characters and the situations. Sample this :

June's moral dilemma on whether she should accept the heart of the man who took practically everything away from her. Maggie wrestling with her agnostic beliefs and what she sees happening in the prison around Shay. Michael's dilemma on his role in bringing Shay where he is; his learnings from the seminary and Shay's miracles. Shay's chosen form of repentance that clashes with the legal stand on his execution. These are just some of the themes dealt with in the story. And then there's the reference to the gnostic gospels - something that were tangentially referenced in Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code. Here, the reference is much stronger, and unlike The DaVinci Code, they are just a subtext in the main plot.

What makes the book such a great read is that the author stays faithful to the main plot and doesn't let all the subtexts overpower it. And the fact that she doesn't take a stand on the religious aspects of the plot. The only strong stand that she does take in the book is a strong anti-death penalty one. And surprise of surprises, this book made me think strongly about the juxtaposition of my stand on the death penalty and my spiritual views. And by the time I finished this book, I was converted from a strong votary of the death penalty to an opponent of it. And that change didn't come entirely due to the content of the book. Rather, it was a chain of thought that the book initiated, which resulted in that change.

The best part of the book is the discussion subjects at the end. 4 pages full of topics and issues from the book that can be discussed and debated. And though its a really long read, I would recommend this book with a 5 star rating for its mighty thoughprovoking content.