Songs of the Humpback Whale

Very foggy here in Maine this morning. My husband has gone fishing so it's a good day to curl up with a good book.


This is the last Jodi Picoult novel I had left to read except for her latest. This is also her first one, I believe. I started it about a year and a half ago but just couldn't seem to get interested in it. So, I thought I'd try it again. This time I was ready and enjoyed it.

The novel is told in 5 different voices. The main character is Jane Jones. She's a speech therapist, married to Oliver Jones who is a research scientist and an expert in the songs of humpback whales. After a fight, she leaves him with her teenage daughter and heads across the country to visit her brother in Massachusetts. He works at an apple orchard for a man named Sam.

Jane, Oliver, and Sam tell their stories in a straightforward manner but Rebecca, the teenager, tells her story backwards, which takes a little getting used to, and Jane's brother, Joley, tells his story in letter form. I'm glad I stuck with it, though!