Jodi Picoult
With her new novel Wish You Were Here out this month, the international bestselling author shares the books that have shaped her…
THE CHARACTER I LOVE THE MOST IS…
Elizabeth Bennet. She’s smart, opinionated and woefully out of fashion for her time – and still manages to find the guy who loves her for those attributes, rather than in spite of them.
MY ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BOOK IS…
Hard to narrow down – I have too many. But a recent favourite is The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue by VE Schwab, about a woman who makes a devil’s bargain to live for ever, with the caveat that she will be remembered by no one. It’s really about the way we leave the stories of ourselves behind in the world, even when the universe seems bent on erasing us.
MY FAVOURITE BOOK AS A CHILD WAS…
Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I remember my mum reading it to me before I could read myself. There was a thrill to the thought that one’s bedroom could dissolve into a whole different world, one filled with monsters, of which you might be king.
MY FAVOURITE LINE FROM A BOOK IS…
From Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, when Lady Brett Ashley says at the end, ‘Isn’t it pretty to think so?’ The heartbreak and the loss of what an alternative life could have been is haunting.
THE CHARACTER I MOST RELATE TO IS…
Not a character, but a real person: Emilia Bassano. She’s best known as the first woman to be considered a poet, publishing a book of psalms in 1611 that had a feminist bent. Italian and Jewish by birth, she became the mistress of Elizabeth I’s Lord Chamberlain – for whom a little-known guy named Shakespeare wrote plays. Not only is she thought to be the ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets, she still doesn’t get the credit that she deserves.
THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY IS…
Woodrow On The Bench by Jenna Blum, about the end of her old dog’s life. And I mean ugly cry – the kind only chocolate can heal.
THE ONE BOOK I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD READ IS…
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It’s about the resilience of humans and how one little life can make a difference to thousands of others.
THE BOOK THAT HAS GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME…
I read Alice Hoffman’s Turtle Moon when I was just out of college and navigating how to move from studying fiction to reading it for pleasure. I credit Alice with making me fall in love with words again.
Wish You Were Here (Hodder & Stoughton) by Jodi Picoult is out 25th November