“As the fist in her belly pulled tighter, she bit her bottom lip. Ignoring the pain that rippled and receded, she tiptoed barefoot into the night. She concentrated on the hides of the Holsteins until their black spots shimmied and swam. She sank her teeth into the rolled hem of her nightgown. There was a funnel of pressure, as if she were being turned inside out…It was over as suddenly as it had begun. And lying on the matted, stained hay between her legs was a baby.”
Those are some lines from the first chapter of Jodi Picoult’s novel Plain Truth. Written in 2007, it’s a typical Picoult novel that deals with a tough subject. When the story begins, Katie Fisher, an eighteen-year-old unwed Amish woman, has just given birth in her family’s barn. Exhausted, she falls asleep asking God to help her.
When she wakes up, she believes her prayer has been answered because the baby is gone. She goes back to sleep in her bed and when she wakes up the next morning, the police are there investigating who had killed the baby they found under blankets in the barn.
At first, Katie’s mind has blocked out the fact that she was even pregnant and cannot explain why she is bleeding. A medical exam determines that she is the baby’s mother, and Katie is sent to jail. It is now up to her attorney cousin to convince the jury to acquit her.
This book offers a glimpse into the Amish way of life. As the story unfolds, Katie remembers that she was pregnant and how that came to be, but she still doesn’t remember how the baby ended up dead in a different stall from where she gave birth. And Picoult doesn’t reveal the answer until the very end of the book.
If you’re interested in a glimpse into the Amish way of life, then you must read Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult.
