Jodi Picoult

Best-selling author Jodi Picoult enjoyed considerable success over the course of a two-decade career with such books as Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992), My Sister's Keeper (2004), Nineteen Minutes (2007) and Leaving Time (2014). Picoult's novels touched on the complicated emotional matters at the hearts of seemingly average families in small towns across the United States, including issues of spousal and child abuse, neglect, sexual identity and, in some cases, major crimes like murder. What separated Picoult's material from paperback potboilers and romance novels was the quality of her writing, which often employed multiple narrators and conflicting viewpoints to present a difficult situation from as many perspectives as possible. The emotional depth of her work boosted eight of her books to the top of the New York Times' bestseller list, while five were adapted as feature films or made-for-television movies. Picoult's innate talent for rooting out the difficult truths behind families, marriages and parenting made her one of the most popular authors of the late 20th and early 21st century.