This is one of Jodi Picoult's earliest novels. It was not quite as good as her later ones, which I've loved.
In this story, Paige is a young mother overwhelmed by her role who sort of snaps and runs away for a bit. The book starts out with her trying to come back to her husband and baby after the fact, and then flashes back to her earlier life and how she got into that mess, so this is not a spoiler. The reader knows Paige's whole backstory is leading up to her abandoning her child (albeit temporarily), and this gave me a case of "Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome."**
Her feelings of hopeless inadequacy that lead up to her flight from home are understandable, given her demanding husband, lack of a mother figure, and general postpartum depression, but it was kind of tough for me to read through.
The characters in the book are wonderfully realistic, and the story is good, but I spent a lot of it rather upset by the things that were happening. Still, it was a good book.
I also read recently by this author: A Spark of Light
**Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome
(see Saving Grace by Jane Green)
That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.
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