Wow this book is poignant.

I absolutely loved reading Diana’s story and the afternote by Jodi Picoult pulled on the heartstrings.

Great twist on what otherwise might be "another pandemic story". Love Jodi Picoult anyway, but having a sumptuous romance B Story on a tropical island against the backdrop of covid made this feel fresh and inviting.

After the experiences of the last 2 years, I resonated so much with this book. Jodi Picoult expresses the pain, loneliness and isolation experienced during lockdown.
Although this may feel confronting to read so close to the covid-19 pandemic, I encourage everyone to read this as it was absolutely compelling and shines a light on the incredible work of front line workers.

I have read many Jodi Picoult novels but this is my first for around 10 years and I do feel that it's a return to form for the author. I was drawn to this by the premise and the 5 star reviews and it does not disappoint. Like all of Picoult's novels it is well written and immersive. For me despite being about the impact of the early days of the COVID pandemic this is also a character driven novel and I was really drawn to the parts which portrayed Diana's relationship with her parents. The aspects of the novel which deal specifically with the stark facts of COVID may not appeal to some readers at this point in time but I do feel that it's a book written from the heart and found it to be an intense and emotional read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Jodi Picoult is one of my favourite authors and she never disappoints. The topics of her books are always relevant and current and I wish you were here was no different.
I loved how this book showed the pandemic from so many different points of view, the characters were so real and likeable.
How Jodi combined the art world and the stunning Galapagos island of Isabela with the horror of the pandemic was seamless.
There was a twist I didn’t see coming and it had a great ending.
All in all a beautiful thought provoking read and I will be recommending to all as I do with all Jodi Picoults books.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

This was my first full on pandemic book. Others have mentioned or touched upon but this was full immersion!

I’ve been disappointed with the last two of Jodi Picoult’s books. They were still well written, but for some reason I felt detached from everyone in A Spark of Light maybe because in the U.K. abortion isn’t such a contentious issue? The Book of Two Ways felt almost so full of detail that I was reading a textbook and losing interest in the story itself. This was a glorious return of form that I truly loved. Diana and her boyfriend Finn live in New York City, he is a doctor and she works at an auction house for fine art, on the verge of promotion to become an Art Specialist at Sotheby’s. She’s trying to acquire a Toulouse Lautrec painting that hangs in the bedroom of a Japanese artist -loosely based on Yoko Ono. Then, everything changes. Finn and Diana have a very set life plan and part of that was an upcoming visit to the Galápagos Islands. However there are rumours flying around in the medical community of a strange new virus in Wuhan, China. It seems like SARS in that it affects breathing, because it causes pneumonia and requires huge amounts of resources to keep patients alive. Diana’s boyfriend feels torn, as a doctor he’s worried and thinks they should be preparing but the president is on TV telling everyone it’s no worse than flu. What’s the truth?

When the hospital announces all leave is cancelled they know the virus is coming. Diana asks what they should do with the Galapagos holiday and he tells her to go without him. She arrives on the last boat and with everything closed she has to take the kind offer of an apartment from a cleaner at the hotel called Abuela. She meets Abuela’s granddaughter Beatrice who appears to have secrets and an inner pain that brings out a maternal instinct Diana didn’t know she had. Tour guide and Beatrice’s father, Gabriel, is the perfect person to be stranded with. He knows every corner of the island and has no work, so he can show Diana some of the sights she would never have seen ordinarily. The islands sound miraculous and here Picoult really does create an incredible sense of place. The seals lazily basking on the jetty, the sea turtles and their nests buried in sand, lush vegetation and lizards lying around intertwined. I could see and taste the salt air. I loved the islanders too - their openness to Diana, the bartering market set up when the island quarantined itself from the world. Everything is vivid and almost hyper-real. Then came the twist!! Oh my goodness I did not expect that at all. This was brilliantly done and shocked me. Yet it was all too plausible.

Diana has one link to the world beyond the Galapagos and that’s the occasional email from Finn. In it we see the reality of the COVID-19 epidemic in New York City. They have so many people being admitted and not enough people recovering and moving through rehabilitation. What do you do when the resources simply run out? Finn is exhausted, has permanent bruises on his cheeks, because they have to keep their masks so tight and is struggling mentally. He describes to her the patients lost, ones he can’t forget, because there are too many to remember them all. This was tough reading and I’ll be honest, I learned things about the virus I’d never heard before such as vascular compromise, bowel necrosis and neurological deficit. There were points where I felt a bit breathless and panicky. As someone who had to shelter from the virus, it made me think twice about going out in a couple of places. Anyone who thinks it’s just a ‘bit of flu’ should be locked in a room with the audio book playing on repeat! Please don’t let this put you off though. It’s beautifully written and the insight it gives into how hard things have been for those in the medical profession is priceless. We owe it to them to read such well-researched and thoughtful accounts of the pandemic. The Galapagos sections are like paradise in comparison and this was the space where I could take a long deep breath.

This book is Picoult at her best, in that it has an interesting storyline, and characters as well as an issue she could really get her teeth into. As the book started I was prepared for it to be set within the art world and I was already curious to see her relationship with Kito - the Japanese art collector - because they seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I thought we might end up embroiled in a legal battle over ownership or whether the painting was forgery. Then everything she’d built at the beginning became subsumed by the pandemic and it became a totally different story. The structure effectively echoes how our lives have been interrupted and changed forever. There are people who went into the pandemic with a job that no longer exists. People have lost friends, family members and partners. The pandemic has changed people, they are looking at how they live and making changes. We moved into the country, and I’m sure others have done similar, focusing on enjoying life and working to live instead of living to work. There are people like me who were disabled, but felt like part of society. Gradually, over the last 18months I have become a recluse and I’ve felt more and more separated from people. Especially those who say we should be kept in so those who aren’t so vulnerable can have their lives back. I’ve felt like an inconvenience, and like we’re holding the rest of the country to ransom. I’m hoping these feelings change with time, but who knows? I could understand Diana’s decision at the end of the novel, it might have seemed illogical but I got it. When you’ve been through something momentous you change, and part of that is re-evaluating life and choosing what makes you happy. It’s trying to recapture hope. I don’t want things to ‘go back to the normal’; I want this pandemic to mean something and I want things to get better. Diana takes that decision for herself and I found that both brave and uplifting.

I found this book very difficult to read especially the parts which were describing Covid and the situation in the hospitals. Having been through the pandemic and still going through it now it was very hard hitting and a painful read and something that I found difficult to comprehend as reading is my escapism and this didn’t give me that and instead made my feel quite anxious and upset.

I think the premise of the story was
Good and would maybe feel differently if I had read it at a different time and when maybe their was light at the end of the tunnel as far as the current pandemic is going. I was disappointed as was looking forward to reading this as love this author.

This wasn't like any book I've read before, and I don't think it can be. Touching on the experiences from all sides of the covid pandemic, I felt quite emotional.
I feel really lucky with my experience so far of the pandemic, and I think this really captured the different aspects of it. It was very well written and sympathetic to the different experiences.

Such a poignant story, incredibly close to home and written superbly. I was hesitant at first as I’ve read other books featuring covid recently that didn’t sit well but once I started this one I simply couldn’t put It down.

I felt like I really understood Diana - her narrative was so incredibly easy to follow and I was immediately invested in her, probably a times when I shouldn’t have been.

I must admit that it was weird and haunting to read back descriptions of the early pandemic whilst we’re still not out of the woods. I did also find there were elements of things I felt were from the UK despite being set in America, but that might just be my ignorance more than anything.

The descriptions of the Galapagos in particular were breathtaking and crafted so exquisitely. I was truly Travelling with Diana through the pages and could really imagine it all.

The end of part 1 was so unexpected that I cannot even begin to explain my feelings… if I thought I was gripped before, now this was a different level. I sped through from this point needing to know how it ended and boy did Jodi Picoult deliver…. The ending literally gave me goose bumps.

I’d recommend this to everyone with the caveat of the fact it touches some very heavy topics and did have my tearing up more than once.

I have to admit that I did consider leaving this aside as personally I felt it was too soon to read a story based around Covid as we are still unfortunately living through it but it did pick up a bit once Diana reached the island, I did skip the parts where Finn was giving his account of his time at work, It’s a well written book and maybe in a few years I would go back and reread it .

I will openly admit to being a Picoult fan before reading the first line of this book but oh my Lord this one blew me away. I nearly fear writing this review as I know I won't do the book justice. Diana and Finn are a young couple living in NYC , about to embark on the trip of a.life time to the Galapagos Islands They have their whole lives ahead of them, each loving their jobs, him as a surgeon and her working f9r Sotherby's.. When the Covid 19 virus hits NYC Finn must remain behind in order to work in the hospital. Diana heads off on her trip only to arrive to an island that is soon locked down. However, she very soon finds some islanders that are willing to 'adopt' her Soon Diana finds new ways of living and new ways of happiness that she could only have imagined before. The trouble is she is finding it harder to miss Finn.
. Picoult takes the reader on an amazing journey, beautifully describing the island, ironically during a time when travel.is banned. She has an unrivalled way of getting the reader thinking, of raising the difficult subjects and coming at the topic from both sides..
The journey for Diana and Finn doesn't end there with twists involved that will leave the reader with goosebumps for a long time. As mentioned before I have loved all her books but I tempted to say she might have outdone herself with this one. Please do yourself a favour a read. A million thanks for the advanced copy.

Synopsis
Diana finds herself, along with her doctor boyfriend, at the start of the covid 19 storm. As New York residents, things around them get bad, really quickly. Diana seems to have escaped the worst when she goes on a dream holiday just before New York becomes the epicentre. But has she really escaped the nightmare?

Review.
Ive always been a massive Jodi Picoult fan. She's never been afraid to tackle a difficult subject head on, and does so in the most charming of fashions. But having been disappointed by her latest offerings, and, due to the prolific explicit language, unable to even finish one of her books, I must admit, I went into this book without the highest of expectations. Especially as the subject matter was something so sensitive, and something that is still having massive repercussions around the world today. I have to say, after reading it, my faith in Jodi Picoult’s creative genius is restored. She handles the subject of the global pandemic with care, sensitivity and finesse.
Diana’s guilt, and occasional relief, at being away from the eye of the storm while her boyfriend is heavily entrenched in the horror of hospital life, is a wonderful juxtaposition. And the twist....oh my goodness. I normally see them coming, but not this one.
I actually sat staring at the screen for a while after this twist. A very carefully written but honest take on one of the worlds most recent global disasters was a pleasure to read.

Verdict. 4/5. A masterful return to form

I have to start by saying that I’m a massive Jodi Picoult fan and find her books so captivating that I generally read them in one sitting…..this one was no different!

Wish You Were Here is set in both New York City and the Galapagos during the height of the Covid pandemic and focuses on Diana as she deals with the troubles we all faced during that time (furlough, restrictions on freedom, isolation from loved ones, fear of illness, etc).

I loved the first half of the book – the descriptions of the Galapagos were so beautiful and I really connected with the characters we met on the island (Abuela, Gabriela and Beatriz). While the discussions surrounding Diana’s job, art and art history were fascinating.

The twist at around the halfway point was very unexpected but also quite jarring, with the shift to focusing on New York in the middle section feeling harsh compared to the relaxed and picturesque setting of the earlier part of the story.

I also found Diana’s boyfriend, Finn – a doctor in a Covid ward – to be rather unlikeable. His input was a bit too preachy for my liking and he seemed to be a means to push the author’s personal views of Covid and how she feels people ought to have reacted.

As with every Jodi Picoult book, this one will have you desperate to turn the page and leave you thinking about the characters, keen to know what happened to them next, long after the story has finished.

I requested this book because I am a huge fan of Jodi Piccoult. I have to admit that if I had read the blurb first there is a good chance I wouldn’t have done. But I’m so glad I did! Yes that’s a strange start to a review. The book strongly focuses on covid- New York on the cusp of the pandemic, a doctor working in ICU, a covid survivor, restrictions.

All of us have been affected by the pandemic in different ways. I myself work in the NHS, in a non-clinical role away from the front line, but in a vital support role which has immersed me since last March. Therefore I would probably have opted not to read something which so strongly brought me back to reality.

Interweaved into the story is that of a woman stranded on the Galápagos Islands during the pandemic, unable to leave to be with her partner, unresolved tensions between a mother and her daughter, and the world and art of Henri Toulouse Lautrec.

As ever, Piccoult’s detailed researching brought both the islands and the art to life, I found myself googling both to find out more too.

As the stories converge to leave the central character evaluating her life, i had to read on- in fact this was a one day- one sitting read. Brilliantly put together and compelling to the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Oh wow, there is SO much to unpick with this book but impossible to do so without spoilers so I shall keep this review brief.

I read a lot of Jodi Picoult books when I was younger and this was my first from the author after a good while and it felt like sipping a warm, comforting drink.

As ever, Jodi's storytelling is as rich and evocative as ever and I fell headfirst into Diana's world as she heads off onto a trip into the Galápagos. I could easily picture both the island and those that lived there as Diana got to grips with her new 'home.' I really liked Diana as a character and actually, most of the characters were easy to connect to. Finn was the only character I couldn't make my mind up on and my opinion constantly changed, especially at the end.

The big twist I certainly did not see coming and it was both brilliant and effective. That said, I think I would have preferred it to come a bit later in the plot. And without giving anything away, that's all I can say!

You would think it would be difficult reading a book that is heavily influenced by covid when we're still continuing to live through it, but Jodi managed to expertly weave it in while tackling other heavy topics at the same time. It felt in no way suffocating, simply enlightening and as you would expect - heartbreaking. It was also incredibly well researched, something Jodi has always been incredible at doing. Even something like the art world which I previously had no interest in actually really fascinated me through her words.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone.

The story
It’s March 2020 and the day before Sotheby’s art historian Diana and her Surgeon boyfriend are due to travel to their bucket list Galapagos trip. Diana is meant to be fetching a Toulouse-Lautrec painting for an auction from a character that has a huge resemblance to Yoko Ono when the owner pulls out of the auction. Diana instead goes to visit her estranged mother in the nursing home. When she gets home Finn suggests she travels to Galapagos without him rather than forfeit the trip as has been told he will need to be available for Covid. Diana travels to the Galapagos and when she gets there, the island goes into lockdown and she is unable to travel home. The story of her trip interspersed with infrequent emails from Finn at the frontline of the pandemic form the basis of the story.

My thoughts
The first part of this book felt so real. Imagine traveling and not being able to get home in lockdown. Being in a place where you don’t speak the language and everything is closed down. But the time out forces Diana to evaluate her lifestyle and the things that are important to her. A twist I wasn’t expecting at all comes halfway through the story and turns everything on it’s head and puts things even more into perspective. I was approved for this eARC a few weeks ago but have felt like I needed to be emotionally ready to read this. Reading the author’s epilogue at the end of the book pulled everything together, her reasons for writing this now while this pandemic is still fresh in her mind and heart. I feel like 2020 will be a landmark in history. Something like WW1 or WW2 have been, upending how the world functions. It’s just been too soon for many of us to process yet. This is a stunning read ❤️

I do love a Jodi picoult and this didn’t disappoint. Well written and that beautiful feeling throughout that I always get from Jodis book.

Jodi Piccoult’s latest novel I feel is her best yet! It is a novel that will resonate with so many, but may also be too soon for some.

Diana is an art auctioneer, about to make her biggest sale to date and in a happy relationship with Finn, a surgical resident.
They’re about to take a two week vacation to the Galápagos.

Everything is perfect.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic hits NYC.

This book was brilliantly written and absolutely page turner! Without giving spoilers, there is shocking twist which drew me into the book even more. There is so much more to this story than meets the eye.

A HUGE thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book to read in exchange for an honest review!

The first half of the book I was quite confused by how mundane and predictable the story was; certainly not the Jodi Picoult I was used to! Needless to say Picoult pulled another incredible story out of the bag and you just need to persevere with the first half for a brilliant pay off in the second! It gave me full body goosebumps more than once, and included such incredible detail that I feel I have visited Galápagos myself! A brilliant story which captures, death, loss and growth during the unique time of a global pandemic.

I usually love Picoult but this book was unfortunately not for me. The first half of the book I was invested in the characters and their story but the "twist" in the middle is where the book lost me. I feel I would have enjoyed the book more if the first half had carried on.