Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult is set on an animal sanctuary where Dr. Alice Metcalf, a dedicated animal researcher, studies elephant behavior alongside her husband, Thomas. On a fateful day that would change their lives forever, a co-worker is brutally killed at the sanctuary. Shortly thereafter, Alice mysteriously disappears and Thomas is committed to a mental institution. Their three year old daughter, Jenna, is left behind.
Ten years later, precocious Jenna Metcalf never recovered from the loss of her mother. All she has left are memories and journals, but she yearns for answers and is determined to find them. Desperate for help, she secretly recruits Virgil Stanhope, the ex-cop who was assigned to the case a decade earlier. She also contacts Serenity Jones, a once famous but disgraced psychic, to help her put the pieces of her family together.
Like Jenna, Virgil Stanhope never recovered from the case either. Uncomfortable with how it was handled, he has spent the last decade on what-ifs and easing his guilt with alcohol. When Jenna appears seeking his help in locating her mother, he takes the opportunity to investigate the case again in hopes of making things right, all while battling his own self-destructive demons.
Serenity Jones, a well known, eccentric psychic, is reluctant to involve herself in Jenna’s quest for answers. However, Jenna is persistent and Serenity eventually agrees to help. As the story unfolds, we learn that this once highly acclaimed psychic has a devastating history of her own, and a reason for leaving the spotlight and isolating herself in a small New Hampshire town.
The three are an unlikely team with conflicting ideas on how to reach their common goal of finding out what happened to Alice Metcalf. As they dig deeper and get closer finding answers, they start to realize things are not as they seem. The case is far more twisting and complex than any of them ever could have imagined. Before long, they come to understand that the deeper they dig and the more they find, the less they want to know.
Superstar author Jodi Picoult has, once again, seamlessly woven characters and events into multiple themes that culminate to an explosive surprise ending. Picoult presents so many life issues for us to reflect upon: loss, maternal bond, animal cruelty, suicide, murder, marriage, infidelity, substance abuse, mental illness, death and the afterlife. The plot is delivered through the points of view of central characters and set in an animal sanctuary. Throughout the novel, Picoult intertwines information about elephant behavior, emotions and cognition. Not only does this information help to place the reader in the setting, feeling for these giant creatures and all that they have endured, but it also provides important symbolism. The symbolic connection between Jenna’s longing for maternal love and the bonding patterns of mother and baby elephants is clear. We see the void in Jenna’s life and her hunger for motherly affection, then we see how deeply elephant mothers and babies grieve when one of them is lost. These connections are smoothly tied in, add depth to the novel’s themes, and help the reader understand the raw emotions of the characters. Furthermore, the information Picoult provides about elephants, their struggles with exploitation, the cruelty of hunters, and the battles they face in the wild have made me fall in love with these beautiful, sensitive creatures. I will never look at an elephant in the same way again.
Also true to life are the complexities of these characters. As human beings, we all have histories. We all have trauma. We are all injured in some way, and indeed, shaped by our pasts. As each character develops, we see the hefty price they have paid for their mistakes, the impact of their subsequent guilt, the effects of maternal loss on emotional development, and the high cost of betrayal. As each character navigates their own twisting path and attempts to cope in their own, unique way, we are reminded that people are complicated, life is messy, and there are no easy answers.
As with all of Jodi Picoult’s novels, Leaving Time is extremely well-written, appropriately paced and deeply thought provoking. This novel offers a wide range of characters and is centered around one of the most fascinating animals on the planet. Leaving Time is a gripping read that I highly recommend for teens, adults, and animal lovers.
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See my review of Picoult’s Handle with Care here.
“No one in the world needs an elephant tusk but an elephant” – Thomas Schmidt