Change of heart

CHANGE Of HEART A NOVEL Jodi Picoult

ALSO BY JODl PICOU LT

Nineteen Minutes

The Tenth Circle

Vanishing Acts

My Sister's Keeper

Second Glance
Perfect Match
Salem Falls
Plain Truth
Keeping Faith
The Pact
Mercy
Picture Perfect
Harvesting the Heart
Songs of the Humpback Whale

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2008 by Jodi Picoult

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary

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First Atria Books hardcover edition March 2008

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Designed by Jaime Putorti

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Picoult, Jodi, 1966-

Change of heart: a novel / by Jodi Picoult.-1st Atria Books hardcover ed. p. cm.

1. Murderers-Fiction. 2. Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc.-Fiction. 3.

Repentance-Fiction. I. Title.

PS3566.I372C472008

813'.54-dc22 2007035721

ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-9674-2

ISBN-10: 0-7434-9674-4

With love, and too much admiration to fit on these pages

To my grandfather, Hal Friend, who has always been brave enough to question what we believe...

And to my grandmother, Bess Friend, who has never stopped believing in me.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing this book was its own form of miracle; it's very hard to write about religion responsibly, and that means taking the time to find the right people to answer your questions. For their time and their knowledge, I must thank Lori Thompson, Rabbi Lina Zerbarini,

Father Peter Duganscik, Jon Saltzman, Katie Desmond, Claire

Demarais, and Pastor Ted Brayman. Marjorie Rose and Joan Collison were willing to theorize about religion whenever I brought it up. Elaine Pagels is a brilliant author herself and one of the smartest women I've ever spoken with-I chased her down and begged her for a private tutorial on the Gnostic Gospels, one of her academic specialties, and would hang up the phone after each conversation with my mind buzzing and a thousand more questions to explore-surely something the Gnostics would have heartily endorsed.

Jennifer Sternick is still the attorney I'd want fighting for me, no matter what, Chris Keating provides legal information for me at blistering speed, and Chris Johnson's expertise on the appeals process for death penalty cases was invaluable.

Thanks to the medical team that didn't mind when I asked how to kill someone, instead of how to save them-