I always enjoy Jodi Picoult’s novels as she has a knack for nuanced characters and the ability to present multiple sides of a complex situation (such as abortion) with intelligence and sensitivity. Leaving Time is no exception.
Alice Metcalf, a scientist who studies grief among elephants, disappears mysteriously after a tragic incident in which another woman is trampled by an elephant in the elephant sanctuary where they work. As a result of that incident, her husband breaks completely with reality and is placed in a long-term psychiatric facility. Ten years later, Jenna, Alice’s now-teenaged daughter, refuses to believe her mother abandoned her and searches online and rereads her mother’s old journals.
Jenna saves her babysitting money, lies to the grandmother who is raising her, and sets off on a multi-state journey to find her mother. Along the way she enlists two people to help her. One, Virgil Stanhope, is an ex-cop—now private detective—who was originally on her mother’s case. The other is Serenity Jones, a failed psychic. Together they learn that hard questions often have even more difficult answers.
Leaving Time is a departure from her usual in that she moved into the world of the paranormal, presenting a ghost story that is imaginative yet scientific. Having traveled in Africa and read extensively about zoology, I sank right into the well-researched details about the emotional lives of elephants. Though I am not a big fan of paranormal novels, this book was a wonderful ghost story with a surprising twist at the end, told with sensitivity and flair.
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Leaving Time (Ballantine Books, October 14, 2014) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my reviews of other Picoult novels here:
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