A return to form for Picoult with a tale of delayed justice

The Storyteller

Back when Picoult first became beloved of book clubs and fiction fans she was fresh and exciting. Then after a while, and after half a dozen similar books, it seemed the biggest question was ‘How does she get these topical books out there so quickly?’. A middle-class moral dilemma only had to feature on Oprah and Picoult spat out a book about a family torn apart — or driven closer together — by it.

Teen suicide, Asperger’s, leukaemia, organ donation, stem cell research, mercy killing and gay rights were just some of the topics Picoult used as themes in her commercial fiction.