Beginning ~ in an old building

The Center squatted on the corner of Juniper and Montfort behind a wrought-iron gate, like an old building used to guarding its territory.  At one point, there had been many like it in Mississippi —  nondescript, unassuming buildings where services were provided and needs were met.  Then came the restrictions that were designed to make these places go away.

A Spark of Light ~ by Jodi Picoult, 2018, fiction (Mississippi)

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center — a women’s reproductive health services clinic — its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors.  Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.  After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman.  As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone.  She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters:  A nurse who calms her own panic in order to save the life of a wounded woman.  A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before.  A pro-life protester, disguised as a patient, who now stands in the crosshairs of the same rage she herself has felt.  A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy.  And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

This is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.  How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry?  What does it mean to be a good parent?  This novel will inspire debate, conversation ... and, hopefully, understanding.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Linky.