Handle with Care

Willow O'Keefe is born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, which means she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, and a lifetime of pain. As the family struggles to cover medical expenses, her mother Charlotte decides to file a wrongful birth lawsuit against her obstetrician for the compensation which might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow.But it means that Charlotte has to say in a court of law that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she'd known about the disability in advance. And the obstetrician she's suing isn't just her physician - she's her best friend.Handle with Care is an absorbing narrative which also questions the basis of medical ethics and of personal morality. What rights do parents or doctors have to terminate a life? How disabled is too disabled? As a parent, how far would you go to save someone you love? “You men out there who think Ms. Picoult is a chick thing need to get with the program. Her books are an everyone thing, and the current offering — about a little girl whose bones are so brittle that they break almost at a puff of wind — is her best since My Sister's Keeper. It's a legal/medical thriller, but at bottom it's a story about the American heart of darkness: a small-town marriage under stress. Picoult writes with unassuming brilliance and never descends into soap opera.”  Stephen King“Jodi Picoult crafts yet another fascinating story and again finds a solution to what seems an impossible situation. Her writing is a decadent treat, just like the sweet recipes she infuses throughout the book. ”  Orlando Sentinel“It’s well written, it’s conscientiously researched and, most important, it presents a character who is a child instead of a disability personified...Handle With Care is a great read, with strong characters, an exciting lawsuit to pull you along and really good use of the medical context. ”  Washington Post“Handle With Care is everything faithful readers would expect from Picoult, handled in her thoughtful, elegiac prose...provocative and complex.”  BookPage magazinePicoult, a master of the domestic landscape, creates a dramatic page turner, relentlessly driving home what doctors tell Charlotte at Willow’s birth: “You can’t live a life without impact.” FOUR STARS.  People magazine“Perennial bestseller Picoult delivers another engrossing family drama, spiced with her trademark blend of medicine, law and love. ”  Publisher’s Weekly