And then imagine how powerful you'd feel if you could ruin someone's life.'Do you agree? Are the most powerful people the ones who have the ability to influence others' fate? Explain, using the examples of Amos, Gillian, Jack and Addie.

Gillian says on page 64, 'Think how powerful you felt tonight, healing someone.

What is the significance of having Jack be a trivia expert?.

Should a verbal accusation of rape be enough to get the judicial wheels turning? Explain, using the examples of both Catherine Marsh and Addie Peabody.

Is it possible, in your opinion, to reinvent yourself?.

How do these flashbacks affect the present-day story, and why did she choose to do this?

Picoult tells the story of Jack's life backward, to the moment of his birth.

Should the citizens of a town have the right to decide who lives there?.

What is the significance of the title of the book?.

Is it possible to distance oneself from one's past? Which characters in the book support this claim? Which refute it?.

In what ways is there a witch hunt in the town of Salem Falls? What sparks the conflagration, and what feeds the fire?

This book is billed as a Y2K update of The Crucible.

Now, at the center of a modern-day witch hunt, Jack is forced once again to proclaim his innocence: to a town searching for answers, to a justice system where truth becomes a slippery concept written in shades of gray, and to the woman who has come to love him. But amid the rustic calm of Salem Falls, a quartet of teenage girls harbor dark secrets-and they maliciously target Jack with a shattering allegation. Now, washing dishes for Addie Peabody at the Do-Or-Diner, he slips quietly into his new routine, and Addie finds this unassuming man fitting easily inside her heart. Bride was destroyed when a student's crush sparked a powder keg of accusation. Love can redeem a man.but secrets and lies can condemn him.Ī handsome stranger comes to the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls in hopes of burying his past: Once a teacher at a girls' prep school, Jack St. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult comes a compelling and disturbing novel about a prep school teacher accused of rape by a group of young girls, the woman who stands by him, and the repercussions of the case in a small, New England town where the past is only a heartbeat away.

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult