By Karen Campbell
Boston Globe
April 3, 2008

Book Review: Change of Heart
By Jodi Picoult
Atria, 447 pp., $26.95

Novels by the pro­lif­ic Jodi Picoult often have a provoca­tive ​“ripped from the head­lines” inten­si­ty, from the euthana­sia issue of ​“Mercy” to the mass school killings in last year’s ​“Nineteen Minutes.” But with her lat­est nov­el, ​“Change of Heart,” Picoult cre­ates her own sen­sa­tion­al con­tro­ver­sy that sits uneasi­ly on the fault line of reli­gion in America, which she believes has become one of the coun­try’s most divi­sive. ​“Change of Heart” unflinch­ing­ly explores the com­plex­i­ties and emo­tions of the death penalty.

The sto­ry takes place pri­mar­i­ly on death row, where a poor, une­d­u­cat­ed young handy­man awaits exe­cu­tion for the mur­der of a police­man and his daugh­ter. As he con­tem­plates his past and his fate, Shay Bourne, who has been mar­gin­al­ized for most of his life, comes to believe that the only way he can redeem his trou­bled exis­tence is to donate his heart after his exe­cu­tion. However, there are two major stum­bling blocks. The first is that the state of New Hampshire’s legal form of exe­cu­tion is lethal injec­tion, which ren­ders the heart unus­able for trans­plant. The sec­ond is that Shay has picked a spe­cial recip­i­ent for his heart — the sis­ter of the girl he is accused of killing — and the des­per­ate­ly ill 11-year-old Claire wants noth­ing to do with it.

Into this com­pli­cat­ed set­up arrive Maggie, Shay’s lawyer, and Michael, one of the jurors who reluc­tant­ly vot­ed to con­vict Shay 11 years ear­li­er. Now a some­what con­flict­ed priest, Father Michael finds him­self in the role of the con­demned man’s spir­i­tu­al advis­er. ​“Ever since I had tak­en my vows and asked God to help me off­set what I had done to one man with what I might yet be able to do for oth­ers — I knew this would hap­pen one day. I knew I’d wind up face-to-face with Shay Bourne.” However, Shay does­n’t rec­og­nize Michael, who keeps silent not to pro­tect him­self from Shay’s anger but to facil­i­tate the man’s redemption.

Like ​“Nineteen Minutes,” ​“Change of Heart” unfolds through the first-per­son nar­ra­tives of those involved, offer­ing a vari­ety of per­spec­tives. In addi­tion to Shay’s allies, there are Lucius, the artist with AIDS con­vict­ed of killing his lover in a fit of pas­sion, and June Nealon, the still-griev­ing wid­ow and moth­er of Claire. This gives the nar­ra­tive rich­ness and tex­ture, but it can also feel a lit­tle for­mu­la­ic after a while. The one per­son whose inner world we nev­er plumb is Shay him­self; except for moments of recount­ed dia­logue, his sto­ry is told through other voices.

While ​“Change of Heart” is a com­pelling page-turn­er, it is more than just a sus­pense­ful count­down to an exe­cu­tion. The dis­turb­ing, thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tions Picoult pos­es about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the ethics of organ dona­tion, and the moral dilem­ma of telling the truth at all costs go well beyond the issue of whether Shay will be allowed to die in a way that pre­serves his heart and whether Claire will accept it as her own.

Picoult also plants seeds of mys­ti­cism and mir­a­cles, as Shay begins to quote obscure gospels and those in his cell block expe­ri­ence unex­plained instances of heal­ing. This begins to attract fer­vent atten­tion from peo­ple on the out­side, who won­der if Shay is the Messiah. Is he a sin­ner or a saint? While intrigu­ing, the over­lay is a bit dis­tract­ing, and this plot ele­ment, as well as an improb­a­bly facile romance between the self-den­i­grat­ing Maggie and Claire’s doc­tor, lends ​“Change of Heart” the kind of leav­en­ing that says ​“com­mer­cial appeal.” But thank­ful­ly, its lit­er­ary heart beats strong; Picoult is a skilled word­smith, and she beau­ti­ful­ly cre­ates sit­u­a­tions that not only pro­voke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us.

Karen Campbell is a free­lance writer based in Brookline.