Jodi Picoult - CHANGE OF HEART

CHANGE OF HEART

About the book
Author video clip
The story behind the book
Book club discussion questions
Jodi on religion
Reviews
Buy the book

If you like CHANGE OF HEART, you’ll also like KEEPING FAITH

About the book

Your daughter needs a new heart.
The only match comes from a murderer.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Shay Bourne becomes the first person in decades to be sentenced to death in New Hampshire, when he is found guilty of the cold-blooded killing of a policeman and his step-daughter. After eleven years on Death Row, the end is coming for Shay. Until he sees a news piece about a young girl who urgently needs a heart transplant.

June’s husband and daughter died at Shay Bourne’s hands, and she thought her greatest desire was to see him killed. Until her remaining daughter is hospitalised, and she realises that there is something she wants even more: for Claire to live. Shay Bourne is offering June’s daughter a miracle – a second chance. But at what cost?

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Author video clip

The Story Behind the Book

‘I’ve explored religion and spirituality before in books – it’s a topic I could plumb many times and still raise more questions than answers. And I’ve looked at legal issues that, when pushed, are less than fair. But right now in America, it feels to me like the country’s being broken apart on the fault line of religion. All the big controversies – like abortion and gay rights and capital punishment seem to boil down to religion, and the weird thing that’s happened to religion. Although historically it was a way to unite people, it’s become divisive – because beliefs have become absolutes. People think, “I’m right, so you MUST be wrong.”

I found myself asking why we believe what we believe. Is it because it’s right? Or because it’s too scary to admit we may not know the answers? And suddenly, I started to come up with the story for CHANGE OF HEART.

It’s about a death row inmate, Shay Bourne, an uneducated, marginal man who’s been convicted of a double homicide, who decides that to redeem himself, he must donate his heart post-execution to the sister of his victim – a little girl who needs a heart transplant. Now, we don’t have slavery in America, but if you’re on death row, the state pretty much owns you. You’d have to petition for a less humane form of execution than lethal injection. Every state that has the death penalty has an alternative method – a firing squad, a gas chamber, or – in New Hampshire – hanging. And if you do that the right way, you COULD donate your organs.

As you can imagine Shay’s request attracts a lot of media attention – which the prison doesn’t want. They call in a priest to talk some sense into Shay about what redemption really is – and the priest arrives just as Shay begins performing miracles. The priest can remember one other guy who had a death sentence hanging over his head who was performing miracles…and things didn’t work out so well for Jesus in the end, either…and so instead of TALKING to Shay, the priest decides to just listen. But nothing Shay says comes from the Bible. Instead, it comes verbatim from a real, ancient gospel that was rejected as heresy by the Church, and excluded from the Bible. And the priest begins to think: People are always finding God in prison – but what if He was already there? And what if the things he said didn’t match what you’d been told your whole life…but instead, the things you’d been told were WRONG?

Research for this book was two-pronged. I began by learning about the death penalty. America’s the only first world country that still uses capital punishment. According to polls, 70% of Americans support it, but that number drops to 50% if the choice is between death or life imprisonment without parole. In New Hampshire, where I live, the death penalty is on the books but hasn’t been used since 1939. In fact, the death cell is now used to store extra mattresses; and the site of the old gallows is the chaplain’s office.

Clearly, I needed to see a working death row – so I scheduled a visit to Arizona to see the facilities and to talk to a death row inmate face to face. I was halfway across the country on a plane when my visit was cancelled – apparently, they decided I was the WRONG kind of media. I found myself banging on the door of the prison – instead of having trouble getting out, I couldn’t manage to get IN! Eventually, I sweet-talked my way into a tour of Death Row. To be honest, if it’s working right, it’s very boring. Prisoners are locked down for 23 hours a day, in individual cells. So I begged to be taken to the execution chamber, which in Arizona is called the Death House. They’ve got a gas chamber and a lethal injection chamber. Both were spotless. I was flicking the microphone switch outside the gas chamber when a woman came up and asked me what I was doing. I told her that I’d been brought down by a correctional officer, and I explained what he’d told me about Death Row.

She folded her arms. “I wish he hadn’t told you that,” she said. “That’s not quite the way it is.”

“Well, maybe you could talk to me, then,” I said, since surely she had all the RIGHT answers.

As it turned out, this was the warden of the prison. I asked her if she had ever presided over an execution – she had. Then I asked if she’d ever attended an execution she wasn’t running. She looked at me and said, “That’s a very personal question.”

I stared at her. “Uh huh.”

Finally, she told me about Debra Milke, a woman who told her four year old son that they were going to see Santa. He dressed up in his Halloween costume and she drove him into the desert, where they were met by the hit men she’d hired to kill him for insurance money. She was sentenced to death, and told the warden that no one in her family spoke to her anymore. She asked the warden to come to her execution for that reason, when it happens.

The warden said yes – not because she thought Milke was innocent, but because she was a Catholic and someone had to pray for her soul.

“You’re Catholic?” I said, surprised. “Do you believe in the death penalty?”

She hesitated, and then said, “I used to.” Then she turned to her assistant, and instructed him to get a binder off her desk. The man returned with a huge book full of the statutes and procedures used to execute someone in the state of AZ. This is a legal document that very few people have ever seen. Most condemned men sue to get a copy, and it’s usually denied. The warden began to read it to me aloud. It included instructions for doing run throughs of the execution, and how to time them so that the victim’s family and the inmate’s family didn’t come into contact on the prison grounds. It gave information about how to find a vein for lethal injection in difficult situations – like in between the toes, or in the groin. It explained where the doctor was during all this – much more hands on than the AMA would like you to think, since an execution isn’t sanctioned by the American Medical Association. Yet although the doctor’s name doesn’t go on the death certificate, they check the IVs and monitor the entire procedure. And finally, she told me how an execution is performed. There are three officers who serve as the executioners behind a wall, holding hypodermic needles. The IV line that runs into the inmate’s vein splits into three separate lines, each attached to one of these hypodermic needles. Two needles have a placebo, the third has the drug used to stop the inmate’s heart – so the three officers never know which one of their three hypodermics actually killed the inmate.

The warden comes in and reads the legal document stipulating the death penalty for the inmate. They she says, “Do you have any last words?” This is the cue for the doctor to administer the sodium pentathol, which is meant to put the inmate to sleep before the potassium chloride is injected to stop his heart. Now, most inmates don’t have a lot to say. “I’m sorry”, or “I love you mom”, or maybe “Screw you”. But when the inmate finishes, the warden says, “May God have MERCY on your soul” – and this is the cue for the three executioners to push down on their hypodermic needles.

What this means, basically, is that the amount of time between the administration of the sodium pentathol and the potassium chloride is NOT usually enough to put the inmate to sleep – and this is why the Supreme Court is debating whether or not lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

I was writing so fast and furious as the warden was giving me this information that at one point I spread out on a horizontal surface – and then freaked out a little when I realized I was sprawled across the lethal injection table.

The warden told me that this was her job, and she’d do it – but she didn’t believe in its effectiveness anymore. She’d seen feeble old men executed, because it took so long for the system to run its course. She’s seen hardened criminals return to the street because their murders didn’t fit the criteria for death penalty sentencing. In her mind, justice didn’t seem very JUST. In fact, of all the people I met who worked there, not a single one actually advocated the death penalty.

That warden retired unexpectedly about a month after my visit. I sort of like to think maybe I had something to do with it!

I had to fly back a second time to Arizona to visit a death row inmate – a man named Robert Towery. Robert and I sat down on either side of a Plexiglas wall. He was very polite and called me Ma’am. He stood up when I walked into the visiting booth. We have kept up a pen pal relationship, where he asks me about my kids or talks to me about the plots of Lost and Grey’s Anatomy. He is an accomplished artist who makes his paints from the pigments of shells of Skittles and M&Ms, or from diluting coffee and ink on the pages of magazines. He’s taught me how you make a knife in prison, or a stinger to heat up your soup. He’s a very nice guy – except for the fact that he was convicted in 1991 of armed robbery, during which he told the victim that he was going to sedate him and instead injected the man with battery acid and killed him. He admits to being high at the time – and he’s been drug free for ten years now. Which brings me to the real issue for the death penalty: everyone knows it’s not right to execute an innocent man. But what about one who’s guilty?

The death penalty was suspended in 1972, but by 1976, it was back in action. 38 states have capital punishment on their law books. Is it a deterrent? The FBI Uniform Crime Report in 2004 showed that the South had the highest murder rate, even though it accounts for 80% of all executions. Is it cheaper than life in prison? Well, it differs from state to state, but in Texas, for example, it costs three times more to execute a man than it does to imprison him for forty years, mostly due to the judicial appeal process. Is it fair? What seems to matter more than the race of the inmate is the race of the victim – if a victim is white there is more likelihood of a capital murder conviction. Plus, only certain murders qualify for capital punishment – suggesting that the legal system thinks some deaths are more awful than others.

The best argument I’ve heard to explain the death penalty comes from another author, Scott Turow. He says it’s the adult equivalent of: “I don’t want you playing in my sandbox anymore.” It’s society’s way of saying to a person that they will never fit in; will never be like the rest of us.

It was this focus on the differences between people, instead of the commonalities, that led to the second branch of research for CHANGE OF HEART – namely, the history of religion. Everyone knows which gospels made it into the Bible, but very few people realize that there was a history behind that editorial decision. In 1945, two brothers were digging for fertilizer in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, when they found an earthenware jug filled with leatherbound texts. They burned some for firewood…and the rest made their way to scholars, who identified them as the Gnostic Gospels.

As it turns out, in the years after Jesus’s death, Christianity was a mess. There were tons of groups calling themselves Christian, and all believing different things. The Gnostics were one of these groups. Gnosis means KNOWLEDGE, in Greek. They believe that being Christian was a good start, but to truly reach spiritual enlightenment, you had to find a secret knowledge – the truth that there is a little bit of divinity in all of us…and that the journey to find it is unique for everyone.

According to the Gnostic Christians, you didn’t need a priest to help you find God, because you were already a PART of God. Jesus wasn’t a savior – just a guide. Religion was deeply personal – you couldn’t believe what anyone told you to believe, because you had to find your own path to spiritual fulfillment. To that end, you should always be asking questions about faith, instead of believing what you were told. They followed multiple gospels which preached this secret teaching, including one I particularly like, the Gospel of Thomas. It sounds much more like Buddhism or mystical Judaism than a traditional gospel. It’s full of riddles and cryptic quotes, such as: “If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.” Well, when I read that, I knew exactly how Shay Bourne, my character on death row, would interpret it – he’d want to donate his heart.

You can imagine how threatening the beliefs of the Gnostic Christians were to the early Christian church, which was trying to unify itself. Iraneus, the bishop of Lyons, decided he’d had enough, and set about standardizing the Christian faith. He picked four gospels that were important to him – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – which all followed a history of Jesus’s life – and John, because he’d distantly known the author. He said that all other gospels were heresy – and thereby made an editorial decision that’s lasted 2000 years.

To be honest, if Iraneus HADN’T done this, Christianity would probably have died out in a mess of infighting. And yet – the baby got thrown out with the bathwater. By getting rid of those Gnostic texts, Christians also dismissed the belief that people might reach spiritual enlightenment in a bunch of ways – not just one RIGHT way. Isn’t it fascinating to think about what the world might look like today, if Iraneus had chosen a Gnostic gospel, instead of the Gospel of John?

It’s no coincidence that I wrote CHANGE OF HEART during an election year. More than ever, I think it’s important to put the history back into the story of religion. And if I could ask people to take away one thing from my book it would be this: to stop thinking of beliefs as absolutes…and to see them instead as an invitation to have a conversation, and maybe learn something from someone else’s point of view.’

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Book club discussion questions

Discuss the irony of Kurt Nealon telling June that “people are never who you think they are”.
Michael says it is easier to say someone deserves to die for what they did than it is to take the responsibility to make that happen. How do you think you would feel in his position? Have you ever been in that position?
After Shay is brought to I-tier, several “miracles” occur: Smythe’s baby is cured; the water changes to wine; Shay revives the robin; Lucuis’s AIDS is cured; the bubble gum is enough for all of them. Discuss the implications of each “miracle”.
Religions come about because of what people need at the time that they need them. Do you agree or disagree?
What would be the hardest luxury to leave behind?
Michael’s grandfather said “I thought God was supposed to love you unconditionally. Those sure sound like a lot of conditions to me (the requirements of a true believer).” Argue both sides of his statement.
Which character is the most real to us? Which one is easiest to relate to? Why?
Where do you stand on the issue of the death penalty? A vivid description if lethal injection is given on page 131. Has this book changed how you feel?
June’s initial reaction is to refuse to a restorative justice meeting with Shay. How would you feel? What changes her mind?
“Saying I’m right. I’m just saying if you’re right, it still doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” Do you agree?
Consider and address June’s questions on page 184. Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you loved? Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy’s dying wish?
Why were all the inmates on I-tier energized by Shay’s attempt to die on his own terms?
Dr. Wu says what makes a heart worthy for transplant has nothing to do with the donor’s personality. Do you agree or disagree? By the end of the book, have you changed your mind?
The history of the Gnostic gospels is in CHANGE OF HEART. Given what you now know about them, does this change your opinion of the New Testament in any way? If so, why, and if not, why not?
We were introduced to Ian Fletcher in KEEPING FAITH. Has your opinion of Ian changed? How?
June says that it’s her decision whether or not Claire should accept the heart – not Claire’s. Do you agree?
“I don’t belong to a religion. Religion’s the reason the world’s falling apart—did you see that guy get carted out of here? That’s what religion does. It points a finger. It causes wars. It breaks apart countries. It’s a petri dish for stereotypes to grown in. Religion’s not about being holy,” Shay said. “Just holier-than-thou.” The news offers many examples in today’s world of how religion can be distorted to further violence or narrow-mindedness. Do you think the benefits of organized religion outweigh its potential caveats?
When Shay’s chains fell to the floor, what was your reaction as a reader? Do you believe in miracles?
Discuss the irony of the various names in the novel: Dr. Christian Gallagher, Maggie Bloom, Shay’s foster home of Bethlehem, NH, Joe Lynch, Warden Coyne, Father Michael Wright – and the title, CHANGE OF HEART.
Lucius’s sarcoma comes back after it was “cured”. What is the significance of the timing? Did this change your opinion of Shay’s “power”?
Shay finally tells Michael what really happened to Elizabeth and Kurt Nealon on the night they died? Are you surprised? Do you believe Shay?
Grace tells June “How would you have felt if---when Elizabeth died---someone told you that you can’t have her back, but that part of her could still be somewhere in the world. You may not know that part; you may not ever have contact with it---but you’d know it was out there, alive and well. Would you have wanted that?” Would you?
How does the preparation for Shay’s execution take on a “showtime” quality? The “circus” atmosphere has been around earlier with the media. How are the two situations similar? How are they different?
Several of the characters’ lives have intertwined: Calloway convicted of burning down a synagogue and Maggie’s father taking over as rabbi at Temple Beth (held in the cafeteria because the synagogue had burned down); CO Smythe’s baby was baptized by Father Michael and becomes one of Shay’s miracles; Michael finding his stolen picture of his grandfather and Shay’s involvement; Michael serving on the jury of Shay’s murder trial and then becoming his spiritual advisor. Discuss.
What do you think is meant by the ending of the book?

Jodi on religion

On issues of religion:

'Far be it from me to tell you what the purpose (of religion) is, but I'd preface any answer by telling you I'm not a theologian. I learn what I need to write my fiction. Religion is something that is meant to bring people together, to make people understand what the meaning of life is, and to bring comfort...If I ever get preachy, any of my fans has the right to hit me over the head with a two-by-four. The whole point of writing is to get people talking…I believe in God, but do I believe in religion? No. The minute you organise into a religion, you're saying that if you aren't part of this group, then you are on the outskirts. And I don't buy into that. Organised religion has become a force that splits, rather than one that joins together. At the moment there's a real undercurrent in American society that says if you don't do it my way you're wrong.'

'The heart of the matter' Independent on Sunday interview, 11 May 2008

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Reviews

'Picoult has an uncanny knack of dreaming up moral dilemmas that you cannot ignore: you must know the resolution... True to form, Picoult keeps you guessing to the end in this morality tale... This is a challenging and clever read... it turns into an edge-of -your-seat thriller, with some thought-provoking wrangling over religious belief and the perils of self-righteousness along the way'
Sunday Express

‘Switch off your phone before you settle down with this page-turner . . . It’s utterly gripping.’

Eve

'It’s an involving, page-turning mixture of emotional upheaval and reasoned argument'

Daily Mail

'A carefully-plotted narrative and perfect pacing lend Picoult’s latest work of fiction credibility.’

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‘I thoroughly recommend CHANGE OF HEART as a wonderfully absorbing read . . . It's a novel that will make you think and will also challenge what you think. And although this is only fiction, Jodi Picoult deals with some very real issues in an intense and moving way. This was a book which I did not want to put down and although I was deeply moved by the ending I was also very disappointed but only because it was over!’

www.bookbag.com

‘Darkly complex, compulsive reading which, like all Jodi’s books, is simply impossible to put down.’

My Weekly

‘If you’re a fan of dark, serious books that explore family relationships and scary moral dilemmas involving religion, crime and politics then you’re probably a massive Jodi Picoult fan already, and CHANGE OF HEART won’t disappoint'

Heat ****

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