Jodi Picoult has written a new novel, Wish You Were Here, inspired by the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The story is about an ambitious young woman whose privileged and well-organised life is upturned by a virus hitting the world, and she slowly unravels while stuck in lockdown.
It is described by the publishing house Hodder as “a compellingly urgent read and an insightful examination of the resilience of humanity and what we need from life”.
Hodder will publish in hardback, e-book and audiobook on 25th November 2021.
The My Sister’s Keeper author explained how emotional she felt when she heard the coronavirus pandemic had struck in 2020: “Humans mark tragedy. Everyone remembers where they were when Kennedy was shot, when the Twin Towers fell, and the last thing they did before the world shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said. “In those early days, I was so anxious that I couldn’t concentrate on anything – which meant that I couldn’t distract myself with my work. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t even read.”
She added: “I started working on a novel, attempting to jog my muscle memory and somehow my brain remembered how to craft a book. But the whole time I was working on that story, I was wondering: how are we going to chronicle this pandemic? How do we tell the tale of how the world shut down, and why, and what we learned? I hope Wish You Were Here does some of that.”
A Hodder representative said: “It was such a thrill to see this fabulous new novel arrive in my inbox. Jodi Picoult’s characters chronicle the early months of the pandemic with the frustration and rage we all felt, but find hope and bright moments in it, and ultimately, a way to make it matter.”
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