Fiction

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 edition contains a short story, discussion questions, and an excerpt from Jodi Picoult's next novel.

"Tom Linden, a Central Park tour guide with a masters degree in History, meets five members of the original inhabitants of Manhattan Island, who wake from four centuries of suspended animation, and seek his help to reclaim Manhattan island from the evil wizard Peter Minuit, who tricked them into a four hundred year lease. The lease is up, and they want their island back but Peter Minuit is a powerful and nasty wizard, and he won't give up his island easily."

The following evening, Tom sat in a shady glen in the park in the city eating his supper. There was a thud and a jigger, and what felt like an earthquake. Tom was shocked when suddenly surrounded by Native Americans in local seventeenth century garb. Five of them.

The leader of the natives was called Flying Cloud He and his tribe explain that Peter Minuit never bought the island and the lease is up. Tom, expert on Manhattan, is moved by their plight and leads them through a modern Manhattan. But Peter Minuit is a wicked sorcerer, and won't give it up so easily!