Jodi Picoult is a publishing phenomenon. She’s a number one best-selling author, whose books have been turned into blockbuster films. She has written 23 novels and is an incredibly organised wife and mother-of-three.
When I met her on an author tour here some years ago, she told me she divides her year into quarters – three months researching her next novel, three months writing it, three months travelling the world to promote the book and three months hanging out at home. It sounded like the perfect life.
Her novels tend to reflect issues in the real world (date rape and high-school shootings) and happenings in her own life. Her latest novel, Leaving Time, was written as Jodi faces the prospect of her last child leaving home and explores the bonds between a mother and daughter.
In the book, Jenna’s mother, Alice, disappeared when her daughter was three years old but Jenna refuses to believe her mother, an accomplished scientist who ran an elephant sanctuary with Jenna’s father, left her voluntarily.
Determined to find her, Jenna enlists some unlikely allies in her search for Alice – Serenity Jones, a former celebrity psychic who has lost her powers, and Virgil Stanhope, a washed-up detective-turned-private eye who first investigated her mother’s disappearance.
The three of them begin to piece together the events that led to Alice’s disappearance and we discover that the bond between a mother and daughter can never be broken.
You’ll either love the ending or hate it – Jodi has asked that nobody reveal the final secret in the book. For me, it worked because of the strength of the characters. It’s another fine novel from Jodi and her fans won’t be disappointed.
