Throughout the book there is a very clear message: elephants would be far, far better off if we humans kept a very great distance between us and them. Throughout her blockbuster career, Jodi Picoult has seamlessly blended nuanced characters, riveting plots, and rich prose, brilliantly creating stories that "not only provoke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us" ( The Boston Globe ). In her most gripping mystery since House Rules, Jodi Picoult brings us a powerful story of a young girl's determination to uncover the truth, however shocking and life-changing it might be. If I knew back then what I know now, I could have told the mayor that just because you stick an elephant in proximity with others does not mean they will form friendships. We are first introduced to the three female narrators, each in her own voice: 13 year old Jenna; her mother Alice, who ten years ago checked herself out of a hospital never to be seen again; and the down-on-her-luck psychic, Serenity, who Jenna hires to help find Alice.

So a decision was made to bring two older females, Durga and Owalla, back to Africa from the US where they had been working and training. It’s true that the bond between a mother and her child is unbreakable and I can attest to that wholeheartedly. Was tempted to give up reading several times but went back to it and did eventually finish reading the entire book. Because I promise you – once you read LEAVING TIME, you’re never going to think about elephants quite the same way. Thirteen year old Jenna decides to find Alice no matter what and has enlisted the help of the detective who investigated the woman's death at the sanctuary and was there when they put her Mum in the ambulance.It was so tender to hear Alice's voice describing the different ways a mother elephant protects her young. She flagged down a zookeeper, who said that Morganetta had once been in local parades, and had done stunts like competing against undergrads in a tug-o’-war at a nearby school, but that she had gotten unpredictable and violent in her old age. A tragic occurrence on the compound ten years ago, when Jenna was three, resulted in the death of a woman and serious injury to Alice.

Picoult blends nature and nurture to balance the plight of Asian and African elephants with the yearning of a child to find her mother. When his wife, Grace (another employee at the elephant sanctuary) discovered this, she killed herself.The book has an unexpected denouement which I found bewildering, and this reduced my overall enjoyment of the story. Picoult showcases her talent by writing about elephants and psychics in Leaving Time, two topics that sound - at least to some people - boring and/or bogus. At the Elephant Sanctuary in TN, elephants reacted so badly to helicopters and planes that they had to institute a no fly zone overhead.

Told in two parts from the POVs of Jenna, Alice, Virgil and Serenity, the first part builds up to a confrontation with Jenna’s father, Thomas, whilst the second part begins to unravel the mystery surrounding Alice’s disappearance. After some struggles and disagreements along the way, the trio sets out to find clues at the elephant sanctuary.To avoid spoilers, I will not elaborate further on this theme but the book does raise interesting questions about the concept of time. The moral of this story is that sometimes, you can attempt to make all the difference in the world, and it still is like trying to stem the tide with a sieve.

I began to do a little digging on elephants, and when I discovered that they actually grieve and experience and process loss, I was completely hooked, and knew I would be writing about what it meant to be left behind…and also that I had my profession for the character of Alice. She was a scientist who was doing field work at a reserve in Botswana to study grief among elephants and met Thomas Metcalf on his brief visit there. Além de ser um thriller peculiar protagonizado por um estranho trio (uma jovem de 13 anos, uma medium e um detective semi-alcoólico), fala-nos de elefantes duma forma nunca antes ouvida ou lida! The accident resulted in another employee found trampled to death, and Alice sustained a head injury.

I liked the use of different narrators between Serenity - the psychic, Virgil - the detective, Alice the mother who disappeared when Jenna was a small child and Jenna. Moreover, elephants live in herds, so creating a "fake herd" of two of three elephants is much like throwing a human into a cell with a stranger and assuming they will be fast friends. LEAVING TIME may be [Picoult’s] finest work yet and is sure to produce much discussion after reading it. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers.