A Spark of Light

A Spark of Light is a novel about a single day at a women's health clinic in Mississippi, when a lone gunman takes the people inside hostage. Jodi Picoult tells the story in reverse, so the tense negotiation outside comes first and each chapter moves back through the hours that brought everyone to that room.

The structure is the book's great draw. Each step backwards strips away another layer of how these people came to be there and what they believed when they walked through the door. Picoult gives voice to people with very different convictions about abortion and tests each of them under pressure, which makes this a book that argues with itself and stays with the reader long after the final hour.