Wish You Were Here: A Novel [B0556]

2021 HCDJ in excellent condition. Rights sold to Netflix for adaptation as a feature film. Named one of the best books of the year by She Reads.

Diana O'Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She's an associate specialist at Sotheby's now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She's not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos-days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time. But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It's all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.

Almost immediately, Diana's dream vacation goes awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they'd booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father's suspicion of outsiders. In the Galápagos Islands, where Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself-and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "One of the absolute best books that I have read! The perspective and understanding of that time is spot on!"; "It was difficult to step back into that pandemic world. At first I was hesitant to read it. The twist at the middle changed a simple story to a multilayered look at disease and trauma and how we adapt (or not), even briefly addressing the issues of LGBTQ, racism and child abandonment." "This is the first book that centers the Covid pandemic (or even mentions it at all) that I've been able to read. Every other book I've started that mentions Covid, I've immediately stopped reading because it just feels too soon. Jodi Picoult did a great job of humanizing the experience of COVID - from many perspectives, including as a nation, as a world, as a frontline healthcare worker, as a loved one of an elderly person in a nursing home during the pandemic, as a survivor almost dying from COVID. This book was definitely different from other books I've read by this author, but I enjoyed it and I do think it'll be a book I think about for a while. Definitely thought-provoking and somehow examines the pandemic in a thoughtful, conscientious way."