Leaving Time
Ballantine (Verlag)
978-0-553-84134-3 (ISBN)
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Throughout her blockbuster career, no. 1 internationally bestselling author Jodi Picoult has seamlessly blended nuanced characters, riveting plots, and rich prose, brilliantly creating stories that "not only provoke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us" ( The Boston Globe ). Now, in her highly anticipated new book, she has delivered her most affecting novel yet - and one unlike anything she's written before.
For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe that she would be abandoned as a young child, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice's old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother's whereabouts.
Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest. The first is Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons - only to later doubt her gifts. The second is Virgil Stanhope, a jaded private detective who originally investigated Alice's case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they'll have to face even harder answers.
As Jenna's memories dovetail with the events in her mother's journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish. A deeply moving, gripping, and intelligent page-turner, Leaving Time is Jodi Picoult at the height of her powers.
Praise for Leaving Time
"Piercing and uplifting . . . a smart, accessible yarn with a suspenseful puzzle at its core." - The Boston Globe
"Poignant . . . an entertaining tale about parental love, friendship, loss." - The Washington Post
"A riveting drama." - Us Weekly
"[A] moving tale." - People
"A fast-paced, surprise-ending mystery." - USA Today
"In Jenna, [Jodi] Picoult has created an unforgettable character who will easily endear herself to each and every reader. . . . Leaving Time may be her finest work yet." - Bookreporter
"[A] captivating and emotional story." - BookPage
"With plenty of twists and a surprising ending, [ Leaving Time ] explores the grieving process and what happens when we cannot move on." - Woman's Day
"A moving and emotional story." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A truly engaging read . . . Full of the deep characters and multilayered story lines that have earned [Picoult] a spot in many readers' hearts." - Library Journal
"Delivers a powerhouse ending." - Booklist
"Memorable and poignant." - Publishers Weekly
Jodi Picoult is the author of twenty-two novels, including the no. 1 international bestsellers The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Between the Lines, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister's Keeper . She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.
"Piercing and uplifting . . . a smart, accessible yarn with a suspenseful puzzle at its core." - The Boston Globe
"Poignant . . . an entertaining tale about parental love, friendship, loss." - The Washington Post
"A riveting drama." - Us Weekly
"[A] moving tale." - People
"A fast-paced, surprise-ending mystery." - USA Today
"In Jenna, [Jodi] Picoult has created an unforgettable character who will easily endear herself to each and every reader. . . . Leaving Time may be her finest work yet." - Bookreporter
"[A] captivating and emotional story." - BookPage
"With plenty of twists and a surprising ending, [ Leaving Time ] explores the grieving process and what happens when we cannot move on." - Woman's Day
"A moving and emotional story." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A truly engaging read . . . Full of the deep characters and multilayered story lines that have earned [Picoult] a spot in many readers' hearts." - Library Journal
"Delivers a powerhouse ending." - Booklist
"Memorable and poignant." - Publishers Weekly
From the Hardcover edition.
chapter 1
Jenna
When it comes to memory, I'm kind of a pro. I may only be thirteen, but I've studied it the way other kids my age devour fashion magazines. There's the kind of memory you have about the world, like knowing that stoves are hot and that if you don't wear shoes outside in the winter you'll get frostbite. There's the kind you get from your senses - -that staring at the sun makes you squint and that worms aren't the best choice of meal. There are the dates you can recall from history class and spew back on your final exam, because they matter (or so I'm told) in the grand scheme of the universe. And there are personal details you remember, like the high spikes on a graph of your own life, which matter to nobody but yourself. Last year at school, my science teacher let me do a whole independent study on memory. Most of my teachers let me do independent studies, because they know I get bored in class and, frankly, I think they're a little scared that I know more than they do and they don't want to have to admit it.
My first memory is white at the edges, like a photo taken with too bright a flash. My mother is holding spun sugar on a cone, cotton candy. She raises her finger to her lips - -This is our secret - -and then tears off a tiny piece. When she touches it to my lips, the sugar dissolves. My tongue curls around her finger and sucks hard. Iswidi, she tells me. Sweet. This is not my bottle; it's not a taste I know, but it's a good one. Then she leans down and kisses my forehead. Uswidi, she says. Sweetheart.
I can't be more than nine months old.
This is pretty amazing, really, because most kids trace their first memories to somewhere between the ages of two and five. That doesn't mean that babies are little amnesiacs - -they have memories long before they have language but, weirdly, can't access them once they start talking. Maybe the reason I remember the cotton candy episode is because my mother was speaking Xhosa, which isn't our language but one she picked up when she was working on her doctorate in South Africa. Or maybe the reason I have this random memory is as a trade--off my brain made - -because I can't remember what I desperately wish I could: details of the night my mother disappeared.
My mother was a scientist, and for a span of time, she even studied memory. It was part of her work on the post-traumatic stress and -elephants. You know the old adage that elephants never forget? Well, it's fact. I could give you all my mother's data, if you want the proof. I've practically got it memorized, no pun intended. Her official published findings were that memory is linked to strong emotion, and that negative moments are like scribbling with permanent marker on the wall of the brain. But there's a fine line between a negative moment and a traumatic one. Negative moments get remembered. Traumatic ones get forgotten, or so warped that they are unrecognizable, or else they turn into the big, bleak, white nothing I get in my head when I try to focus on that night.
Here's what I know:
1.I was three.
2.My mother was found on the sanctuary property, unconscious, about a mile south of a dead body. This was in the police reports. She was taken to the hospital.
3.I am not mentioned in the police reports. Afterward, my grandmother took me to stay at her place, because my father was frantically dealing with a dead elephant caregiver and a wife who had been knocked out cold.
4.Sometime before dawn, my mother regained consciousness and vanished from the hospital without any staff seeing her go.
5.I never saw her again.
Sometimes I think of my life as two train cars hitched together at the moment of my mom's disappearance - -but when I try to se
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 13.10.2014 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 155 x 234 mm |
| Gewicht | 530 g |
| Themenwelt | Literatur |
| Schlagworte | Englisch; Romane/Erzählungen • Mutter-Tochter-Beziehung; Romane/Erzählungen |
| ISBN-10 | 0-553-84134-3 / 0553841343 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-553-84134-3 / 9780553841343 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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