''Songs of the Humpback Whale'' (1992) is the

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

Jodi Picoult Jodi Lynn Picoult () is an American writer. Picoult has published 28 novels, accompanying short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 ...

. The book is about Jane, a woman who chooses to leave her emotionally abusive and distant husband behind in favor of driving across the country from

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

to live with her brother in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

on an

apple orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

. Her teenage daughter, Rebecca, chooses to come with her. Oliver, her husband, tracks them down in an attempt to save his family.

Plot summary

Jane Jones, a

speech pathologist Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...

, has been married to Oliver Jones for almost twenty years. Together, they have a teenage daughter named Rebecca. Oliver is a world-renowned

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others th ...

. However, Oliver has a history of behaving emotionally abusive and emotionally unavailable. After a heated argument that culminated in Jane slapping Oliver, Jane calls her brother Joley, who is living and working on an apple orchard in Massachusetts. Through a series of letters awaiting the mother-daughter duo at designated post offices, Joley guides Jane and Rebecca across the country until they are reunited, while Oliver begins to obsessively track them down. The orchard is owned by Sam, who employs and lodges his friend, Hadley, as well as Jane's brother, Joley. Soon into her stay at the orchard, Jane and Sam begin an affair, and a relationship develops between Rebecca and Hadley. This is controversial, as Hadley is 25 and Rebecca is 15, while Jane is 35 and Sam is 25. Jane is worried about her daughter, and is able to persuade Sam to chase Hadley away. Sam agrees to do so reluctantly. Eventually, Oliver is able to track Jane and Rebecca to the apple orchard. Oliver arrives with the intention of bringing the women back to San Diego. However, Rebecca, afraid of being separated from Hadley, runs away to his mother's house, where he resides. The pair are discovered one morning atop a mountain by Oliver, along with Sam, and a

park ranger A ranger, park ranger, park warden, or forest ranger is a law enforcement person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks. Description "Parks" may be broadly defined by some systems in thi ...

. Hadley, startled and attempting to run falls from the mountain to his death. Sick with

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

from spending the night outside, Rebecca has no choice but to return to the orchard. Confronted with the consequences of leaving her husband and travelling across the country, Jane returns home to San Diego with Oliver and Rebecca.

Narrative style

''Songs of the Humpback Whale'' is told in five voices. It uses the alternating narrator style that Picoult often employs, including in ''My Sister's Keeper'', in which the characters take turns narrating chapters and providing their perspective on the same event. However, Rebecca's chapters are told in reverse order of the events from her and Jane deciding to return home to California from Massachusetts. In the paperback version of the book, each characters' narrative is told in a different

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

style.

Characters

Jane Jones: Mother of Rebecca, wife of Oliver, speech pathologist, age 35. Oliver Jones: Jane's husband, Rebecca's father, marine biologist studying the songs of male

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...

s. Rebecca Jones: Teenage daughter of Jane and Oliver, age 15. Joley: Jane's brother, Rebecca's uncle, employee at Sam's apple orchard in Massachusetts. Sam: Owner of the apple orchard in Massachusetts, Jane's lover, age 25. Hadley: Sam's friend and an employee at his apple orchard, in a relationship with Rebecca, age 25.

Plot summary

Narrative style

Characters

See also