The COVID 19 pandemic has interrupted all of our lives. From job losses to working from home, to wearing masks and social distancing and getting vaccinated, each of us has had to make adjustments to life.
With the pandemic continuing, one would think a book that centers the pandemic as part of its plot would be something nobody wants.
But, master storyteller Jodi Picoult’s latest book Wish You Were Here is set in the early days of the pandemic (March 2020), and the book talks about how one woman’s experience could change how she looks at her life.
Wish You Were Here follows Diana O’Toole, who is perfectly on track with her life goals. She has always planned to be married by 30, have her kids by 35 and move to the New York City suburbs. All the while, she will climb the professional ladder in the art auction world.
Diana is 29-years-old when the story begins, nearly 30. While she hasn’t been proposed to yet, she knows her longtime boyfriend, Finn, plans to propose on their upcoming trip to the Galapagos. However, on the eve of their trip, Finn, a surgical resident, tells Diana it’s all hands on deck at work because of COVID.
Finn encourages Diana to take the trip, as it would be a waste to lose their non-refundable trip. Diana reluctantly heads to the Galapagos. But just as she gets there, the island shuts down for what’s she’s told will be two weeks due to the virus. Diana essentially becomes stranded on the island, not allowed to leave because of the lockdown, and without a place to stay because her hotel closed.
Diana connects with a family on the island, who take her in during the lockdown. She starts to bond with a teenage girl, despite the girl’s father being suspicious of outsiders. As she spends more time in the Galapagos, Diana finds herself questioning her life and her goals and wondering if she will be the same person when she returns home.
It would be easy for a book that centers the pandemic to be “COVID this” and “COVID that.” However, Picoult doesn’t do that here. While the pandemic is certainly a central part of the book, the story is more about Diana discovering there is more to life than just her goals and wants.
Ultimately the book becomes about life throwing you curveballs and that you have to figure out how to overcome them. It might be scary, but it’s something we all have to do, and it’s usually for the better.
Without giving too much away, the classic “Jodi Picoult Twist” as I’ve come to call it after nearly a decade of reading Jodi’s books, happens at the midway point in this book. Usually the twist happens in the final pages of the book, but it was refreshing to have this twist happen right at the end of part one and the beginning of part two. It will certainly surprise you and make you hungry to keep reading to find out exactly where the story is heading.
Wish You Were Here is available in bookstores and online now.
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