Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Small Great Things and The Book of Two Ways comes “a powerfully evocative story of resilience and the triumph of the human spirit” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six) 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.

This book was an ‘extra, optional' book club book, and I'm SO GLAD I read it. I'm beginning to realize that I love everything I read from this author. The premise - a woman gets stranded on vacation in the Galapagos and away from her significant other who is a front-line doctor in NYC at the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic in March, 2020. The story swept me along as she got her footing in her new surroundings and became a part of that community, while having limited contact with NY and her life outside of paradise. Meanwhile, her boyfriend is drowing in Covid patients in NY and hoping she is ok. I saw an interview with the author where she mentioned that she interviewed front line workers while writing the book, and that they were so grateful to tell their story, and the truth of what it was like in the hospitals in 2020. I can't go into more detail about the turns the story takes without major spoilers, but it's a great read with so so much to discuss. Things like - what if we step off the path we are on and really look at it to see if it is still what we want, or what we would choose? Examine if we believe in things we can't understand, or that don't make sense. What would we risk to have a last chance to speak to a loved one? I can't wait for book club to discuss alllllll of it. Highly recommend. First five-star read of 2023!

I enjoyed the first half of this, but the second part not so much. Unfortunately I just wasn't as invested with the second half of the book.

I should say though, that it was beautifully written in parts.

Thank you to PH and Jodi Picoult for the chance to read this book.

4.5 stars. Loved the narrator. I could listen to her all day. And Jodi Picoult did not disappoint. Great story and her perspective on Covid and what a lot of people went through during the pandemic is worth reflection and a desire to live life fully.

I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID!!!!!!!

A note to any and all authors and publishers, up front: I ABSOLUTELY, 10000%, DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID!!!!! I READ FICTION TO ESCAPE THE “REAL” WORLD!!!!! Write the stories if you feel you must. Maybe for your own mental health, you need to write COVID stories. For the rest of us, PLEASE do NOT publish them for a while. It is still TOO real, no matter what one thinks about the virus or any of the politics around it. (And remember, no matter your own thoughts on it, there are large segments of your potential customers who will disagree with you.)

All of the above noted, the actual story here is well crafted and well told. Picoult manages to bring in, from a more mysticism side, one of the aspects of Bill Myers' Eli that made that book one of the most influential of my own life - even as he approached the concept from a more science/ science fiction side. The scenes in the Galapagos in particular are truly viscerally stunning. You feel yourself being there as much as our lead character is, in all of the messy situations she finds herself trapped in on this paradise as the world falls apart. Indeed, had the entire book been based there, to me it would have been a much better book overall - even though I objectively rated this story as a 5, I must admit the latter third of the book, while still strong and compelling storytelling objectively, was less interesting to me (other than the mysticism mentioned above, as this is where those aspects come into play). At the end of the day, I write this review roughly six weeks before publication and this book has nearly 600 reviews on Goodreads - at the time I began writing this, it looked as though this one will be number 569. Which speaks to the marketing reach and prowess of its publisher, and Picoult's own status as, as I described her on Facebook earlier this morning “a grocery store book section level author that seems to occupy half of said grocery store book section”. And the mystic hook being so rarely used is perhaps reason to rate this book as more compelling than others, but overall the tale here and the level of the writing... as I mentioned on my review of Taylor Jenkins Reid's Malibu Rising: there is absolutely *no doubt that this is a strong tale strongly crafted. But I really have read oh so many authors from less powerful publishers that are at least as good, and thus I truly don't understand the hype.

For those that do want a “real” look at COVID in their fiction, whether that be in 2021 or later, this book is absolutely must read. For those that want island escapism and don't mind COVID being a central part of the tale, you're definetly going to want to read this one, even if you've never read Picoult (as I had never before this book). But for those who, for any reason at all, just can't deal with COVID “realism” in their escapism/ fiction... maybe hold off on this one until you're at a point where you can. And then read it, because it really is a great story overall. Recommended.