Plot Recap of Hollow Bones by Jodi Picoult
Molly Fitzgerald, now 25 and the head of Rhode Island’s emergency preparedness department, was just two months old when her mother, Eloise, went to a medical appointment in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001—and never came home. Raised by her grieving father and loving stepmother Evie, Molly carries the weight of that loss into adulthood, choosing a career devoted to preventing disasters.
As Molly enters her first pregnancy and works in emergency services, she encounters Georgia, a receptionist at her OB-GYN’s office. Georgia’s presence triggers unraveling truths: Georgia is actually Eloise, Molly’s mother, alive but vanished and living under a false identity after suffering severe postpartum psychosis following Molly’s birth.
Molly’s parents had believed Eloise died in the 9/11 attacks because she disappeared downtown that morning. In truth, after slipping into psychosis, Eloise fled New York, reinvented herself as Georgia Gilligan, and remained hidden—unbeknownst to Molly—for twenty-five years.
The revelation forces Molly to confront everything she thought she knew: about her mother’s legacy, her own identity, her marriage to Jesse, and the stories her family built for protection. The novel weaves past and present to explore trauma, family secrets, maternal mental illness, and the ways we survive loss.
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