Harvesting the Heart

A Novel

By: Jodi Picoult

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Jodi Picoult’s Captivating Second Novel

From the New York Times bestselling author of My Sister’s Keeper, Lone Wolf, and the forthcoming The Storyteller, Harvesting the Heart is written with astonishing clarity and evocative detail, convincing in its depiction of emotional pain, love, and vulnerability, and recalls the writing of Alice Hoffman and Kristin Hannah. Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who left when she was five. Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own. But her mother's absence, and shameful memories of her past, make her doubt both her maternal ability and her sense of self worth. Out of Paige's struggle to find wholeness, Jodi Picoult crafts an absorbing novel peopled by richly drawn characters and explores issues and emotions readers can relate to.

“A brilliant, moving examination of motherhood, brimming with detail and emotion.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Jodi Picoult explores the fragile ground of ambivalent motherhood in her lush second novel. This story belongs to… the lucky reader.” —The New York Times Book Review

Critic reviews

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

"Picoult has become a master-almost a clairvoyant-at targeting hot issues and writing highly readable page-turners about them . . . It is impossible not to be held spellbound by the way she forces us to think, hard, about right and wrong."
-The Washington Post

Ok not her best.

The narration was ok
other than misreading a few words. Narrator needs to do more homework.

Mother’s and Daughter’s

If you have a beautiful version of yourself (a daughter) running around after you or beside you this is a great book for you. Jodi I want you to know I was yelling in the car while I listened to the book. Page and I have so much in common and you nailed the feelings of giving birth and being married perfectly!!

Harvesting the heart review

The philosophical and literary themes along with the matching storyline made it an enjoyable yet very impactful read!

Family's Worth -

Another touching tale by J.Picoult of family challenges. Ms Picoult glows with this sort. Life's Generally about Seeing what you want & Doing EVERY tiny step needed to grab your win!! Eye opening in many ways + being willing to look at All View points. The ending for this one I felt was incompetent & abrupt in general. And Still Well Worth the read!

A first for me, not loving a Picoult novel

I always love the depth, drama and twists of a Picoult novel, but this one is a first where I have more dislikes than likes.

Understanding that this book was written in 1993 when I was in my early college years, I'm trying to give it some grace for being immature and of its time. But man - the amount of witholding, half truths, selfishness and backing people into uncomfortable and unfair situations are truly 1950's stereotypes. Both exhibit behaviours that they're railing against, and don't see in themselves at all.

Paige has understandable trust issues and desperately needs some help to unwind these things in her own life, but instead, she bulldozes herself into Nicholas' life, work and space and continues to think she can force him into forgiveness. She continues to lie and withold simple information from her teen boyfriend, her mother and her own friend group. Her Mother-in-Law is the one person who seems to get everything without being told - this completely breaks my ability to get to know that characther since it makes no sense how she's not able to stop Paige in her tracks and say "Just tell us the truth, we want to help" - they just offer her all the things she needs without her earning them from them.

Nicholas is occasionally delightfully open and deep, but his own inability to see how much pain, stress, and work there is once having a baby. His disconnect from seeing the clues seems to be thinking of a completely different charachter - one that doesn't have the ability to love and open himself up like he does before the main Plot twist - one that forces him into the very situations that should teach him some humulity, but he keeps walking right up to the point and missing it.

I kept waiting for one of these charachters to learn something, to have a relization, to understand something from someone elses perspective, but the only ones who seem able to do so are the inlaws, who don't get fleshed out enough for us to understand how that happened and why it keeps not happening to Paige and Nicholas.