Sing You Home

A Novel

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Every life has a soundtrack. All you have to do is listen.

Music has set the tone for most of Zoe Baxter’s life. There’s the melody that reminds her of the summer she spent rubbing baby oil on her stomach in pursuit of the perfect tan. A dance beat that makes her think of using a fake ID to slip into a nightclub. A dirge that marked the years she spent trying to get pregnant.

For better or for worse, music is the language of memory. It is also the language of love.

In the aftermath of a series of personal tragedies, Zoe throws herself into her career as a music therapist. When an unexpected friendship slowly blossoms into love, she makes plans for a new life, but to her shock and inevitable rage, some people—even those she loves and trusts most—don’t want that to happen.

Sing You Home is about identity, love, marriage, and parenthood. It’s about people wanting to do the right thing for the greater good, even as they work to fulfill their own personal desires and dreams. And it’s about what happens when the outside world brutally calls into question the very thing closest to our hearts: family.

INCLUDES A COMPACT DISC OF ORIGINAL SONGS
Music by Ellen Wilber
Lyrics by Jodi Picoult
All songs performed by Ellen Wilber
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Book details:
  • Atria Books | 
  • 480 pages | 
  • ISBN 9781439102725 | 
  • March 2011
$28.00 List Price
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Read an Excerpt


ZOE

One sunny, crisp Saturday in September when I was seven years old, I watched my father drop dead. I was playing with my favorite doll on the stone wall that bordered our driveway while he mowed the lawn. One minute he was mowing, and the next, he was facefirst in the grass as the mower propelled itself in slow motion down the hill of our backyard.

I thought at first he was sleeping, or playing a game. But when I crouched beside him on the lawn, his eyes were still open. Damp cut grass stuck to his forehead.

I don’t remember calling for my mother, but I must have.

When I think about... see more

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Book Reviews

Reading Group Guide

This reading group guide for Sing You Home includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Jodi Picoult. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

INTRODUCTION

Sing You Home follows the story of Zoe, Vanessa, and Max. After almost a decade of marriage and unsuccessful attempts to conceive with the aid of fertility treatments, Zoe and Max Baxter divorce and begin building their own separate lives. Max finds himself staring at the bottom of a bottle, until he finds salvation in the conservative Eternal Glory Church after a near-fatal, alcohol-induced car accident.

Meanwhile, Zoe, a music therapist, befriends Vanessa and their friendship ultimately blossoms into love. Soon after marrying, the two decide to try for a baby using the three remaining embryos from Zoe and Max’s fertility treatments—a decision that brings Max and his new Christian community crashing into their lives. An emotionally draining court trial for custody of the embryos ensues, testing the limits of faith, love, and the definition of family.




QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

1. An original, accompanying soundtrack is available for Sing You Home. see more

Video

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult’s new novel Sing You Home explores what it means to be a family.

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