Best selling author captures Aussie hearts

by Larissa Chatwin

May 12, 2008

BEST sselling US author Jodi Picoult visited Perth on May 12, her first stop on a nation-wide tour to promote her latest book, Change of Heart.

eMU News caught up with her at a book signing event at the Borders store in Perth, a city Picoult said she loved, likening it to San Diego.

“You’ve got your river on one side and the ocean on the other; it’s a gorgeous city,” she said.

Picoult said Change of Heart was essentially about why people believe the things they do.

“Is it because we’re right, or is it because we’re too scared to admit that we may not know the answers?” she asked.

Picoult said the issues of religion and capital punishment, both central to the book, were important in light of it being an election year in the US.

“It feels to me that religion has become divisive instead of uniting, all over the world,” she said. “No one in America really knows how capital punishment goes on; it’s all behind closed doors.

“Hopefully this [book] will open eyes and at least make them ask questions about why it’s on our law books.”

Picoult said she wanted to make the American people less complacent.

“What I would like to do is not tell people what to think, but to invite them to engage their minds, and be part of the discussion,” she said.

Change of Heart is set in the US state of New Hampshire, and tells the story of Shay, a man who is convicted of murdering a cop and his young step-daughter.

Now on death row, Shay declares he wants to donate his heart, post-execution, to his young victim’s sister, who needs a transplant.

The situation becomes even stranger when Shay begins performing what appear to be miracles.

On Tuesday, Picoult will head to Adelaide, then Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart, Sydney and Brisbane, before visiting New Zealand.

Picoult, 41, has written 15 novels, which have been published in 34 languages in 35 countries. Change of Heart is her second novel to debut at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Her 2007 novel Nineteen Minutes, dealing with the aftermath of a high school massacre, was the first.