Description
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult is a powerful and thought-provoking contemporary novel that confronts issues of race, privilege, and justice in modern America. Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Readers’ Favourite Fiction in 2016, this bestselling novel showcases Picoult’s ability to tackle difficult subjects with empathy, insight, and emotional depth. It’s the first book featuring the character Ruth Jefferson, a seasoned African American nurse whose life is upended by a devastating incident on the job.
Ruth Jefferson has spent over two decades as a respected labour and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital. But one routine shift changes everything when a white supremacist couple demands that Ruth not be allowed near their newborn child. When the baby later goes into cardiac distress and Ruth is the only one present, she must make a harrowing decision — comply with hospital orders, or intervene to try and save the child. That split-second hesitation leads to a criminal charge, a public scandal, and a high-profile court case that forces Ruth and her white public defender, Kennedy McQuarrie, to confront their own assumptions and biases.
A gripping, socially relevant drama perfect for book club discussions, Small Great Things is a timely, compassionate novel for readers drawn to stories of moral complexity and social justice.
