Jodi Picoult

In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling's residents. Even those...

One moment June Nealon was happily looking forward to years full of laughter and adventure with her family, and the next, she was staring into a future that was as empty as her heart. Now her life is a waiting game. Waiting for time to heal her wounds, waiting for justice. In short, waiting for a miracle to happen. For Shay Bourne, life holds no more surprises. The world has given him nothing, and he has nothing to offer the world. In a heartbeat,...

Tall, blonde and handsome, Jack McBride was once a beloved teacher and football coach at a girl's school, until a student's crush sparked a powder-keg of accusation and robbed him of his career and reputation. Now after a devastatingly public ordeal that left him with an eight-month jail sentence and no job, Jack resolves to pick up the pieces of his life; taking a job washing dishes at Addie Peabody's diner, and slowly forming a relationship with...

District Attorney Nina Frost and her husband, Caleb, face a nightmare when they discover that their young son Nathaniel has been molested, a trauma that has left him mute, terrified, and unable to reveal the identity of his attacker.

"'Leaving home' brings together three previously published short pieces, each dealing with a variation on the theme of leaving home. The first, "Weights and measures," deals with the tragic loss of a child; the second is a non-fiction letter Picoult wrote to her eldest son as he left for college; and "Ritz" tells the story of a mother who takes the vacation all mothers need sometime" -- from container.