
A Tortoise in the Road
June 2, 2002, is an ordinary day for a handful of strangers driving through the desert when a tortoise crosses the road, resulting in a horrific automobile collision. Flash forward a few years, and Blake Morgan, a reporter who covered the collision, is assigned to provide an update on the survivors for a human interest story in his newspaper. He discovers that things have gotten worse for the survivors: one has terminal cancer, another ALS, and a young woman who had been rendered quadriplegic has fallen into a deep depression. All of them have lost their will to live and seek a permanent end to their suffering. Their struggles over this moral and legal dilemma are profound. Staggering medical costs, anxious heirs, government, and religion all tug at their choices. And should it even be their exclusive choice to make? Blake will eventually be forced to confront his own beliefs about the “Right to Die” debate when, years later, he is asked to help a dying friend.
With one of the most compelling narratives in contemporary fiction, A Tortoise in the Road is a bold and thought-provoking work that artfully explores the emotional, legal, and moral controversy that surrounds assisted suicide today.