#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of Small Great Things returns with a powerful and
provocative new novel about ordinary lives that intersect during a heart-stopping crisis.
Picoult at her fearless best . . . Timely balanced and certain to inspire debate.-The
Washington Post 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. Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure
that counts backward through the hours of the standoff this is a story that traces its way
back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful
day. One of the most fearless writers of our time Jodi Picoult tackles a complicated issue in
this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights
of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire
debate conversation . . . and hopefully understanding. Praise for A Spark of Light This is
Jodi Picoult at her best: tackling an emotional hot-button issue and putting a human face on
it.-People Told backward and hour by hour Jodi Picoult's compelling narrative deftly explores
controversial social issues.-Us Weekly
