Plain Truth

infobox Book |
name = Plain Truth


image_caption = Plain Truth
author = Jodi Picoult
country = United States
language = English
genre = Novel
publisher = Washington Square Press
release_date = April 3, 2001
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 432 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-671-77613-4

"Plain Truth" is a novel written by Jodi Picoult about a murder on an Amish farm.

Plot summary

The book tells the story of how a dead infant found on an Amish farm shakes the entire community. An eighteen-year-old, unmarried Amish girl, Katie Fisher, is determined to be the mother. As the police investigate the death, they discover that the baby was not stillborn, but that it died a short time after being born; it was suffocated and cloth fibers were found in its mouth and throat. Katie is accused of neonaticide: the murder of her newborn infant. Ellie Hathaway is the attorney who is assigned to Katie's case, and she must learn the culture and way of the "plain" people in order to gain Katie's trust and find out what really happened.

A doctor determines that the infant was born prematurely due to bacteria that can cause, among other things, the suffocation of the newborn baby, which Katie contracted from drinking unpasteurized milk. After weeks of deliberation in which the jury fails to come to a verdict, Katie pleads no contest, and is placed in an electronic monitoring program, allowing her to live at home while she serves her sentence. In the end Katie's mother, Sara Fisher, gives Ellie the scissors which had been used to cut the umbilical cord, revealing that she knew Katie was pregnant and had gone to her the night she gave birth, though Katie didn't know it. Whether she killed the baby or merely hid it, planning to 'find' it the next morning, is not revealed.

Characters in "Plain Truth"

*Ellie Hathaway, a 39 year old lawyer. Katie is distantly related to her.
*Katie Fisher, an unmarried 18 year old Amish farm girl. She is the main focus of the story. After having a baby, she pushes it from her mind and is accused of murdering it. She was known to have "spoken" to her dead sister, Hannah at nights also.
*Coop, Ellie's ex-boyfriend, a psychiatrist. But ends up making love to her in several parts of the book.
*Jacob Fisher, Katie's older brother. He was excommunicated from his church for continuing schooling and giving up his Amish ways.
*Aaron Fisher, Katie's father. He owns the dairy farm. He is extremely rigid in his views on his religion, not wanting to do anything to go against it whatsoever.
*Sarah Fisher, Katie's mother. She truly loves her children, and would do anything for them, though she must follow her husband's belief system in order not to go against the church.
*Adam Sinclair, a friend of Jacob's in college. He lets Jacob rent out his apartment while he's in Scotland for work. He is the father of Katie's baby. He also a Casanova type character.
*Samuel Stoltzfus, an Amish boy who works for Aaron Fisher. He is Katie's boyfriend, and loves her very much.
*Leda, Katie's aunt and Sarah Fisher's sister who was once excommunicated and now serves as the Fishers' confidant (Except for Aaron Fisher).

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In 2004, the Lifetime television network debuted the Plain Truth movie, starring Mariska Hargitay as the attorney Ellie Hathaway and Alison Pill as accused and disowned Amish girl Katie Fisher.

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420075/ IMDb]