Ballantine
October 2016
On Sale: October 11, 2016
Featuring: Kennedy McQuarrie; Ruth Jefferson
480 pages ISBN: 0345544951 EAN: 9780345544957 Kindle: B01AQNYZ3I Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty yearsβ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that sheβs been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and donβt want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child.
The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?
Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedyβs counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her familyβespecially her teenage sonβas the case becomes a media sensation.
As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each otherβs trust, and come to see that what theyβve been taught their whole lives about othersβand themselvesβmight be wrong.
With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassionβand doesnβt offer easy answers.
Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game.
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