The Librarian's Son

"That's where I died."

When Jessie Wilton's three-year-old son utters these words during a rebroadcast of the 9/11 terror attacks, she is forced to acknowledge a shocking possibility: that her firefighter-obsessed child is recalling the life of a first responder who died with his boyfriend in the Twin Towers.

To Jessie and her wife, accepting that their child may be the reincarnation of a man killed decades ago challenges everything they thought they knew about life...and death. But as word of his extraordinary past-life memories leaks out to their small, conservative town, an extremist organization accuses Jessie of "grooming" her child to be gay-and brands her a danger to the community she serves as a youth librarian.

With neighbors' hostility escalating to anonymous threats, Jessie begins to feel unsafe in her own home. The arrival of a mysterious stalker adds to her dread just as the organization demands that she be fired from her job.

Can Jessie find a way to free her town from the malignant influence of the group that is demonizing her and regain the fragile peace her family has found there?

The Librarian's Son will appeal to readers who enjoy Jodi Picoult's exploration of contemporary hot-button social issues.