Interview With Jodi Picoult: Award Winning Author

Jodi Picoult: Award Winning Author

Famous for exploring the darker side of life, Jodi Picoult – second only to JK Rowling in the bestseller list – has turned the spotlight on the children for whom just a sneeze or a cuddle could crush their fragile bones.

Things break all the time. "You can break a record, a horse, a dollar. You can break the ice. There are coffee breaks and lunch breaks and even prison breaks. Day breaks, waves break, voices break. Chains can be broken. So can silence and fever," so says Charlotte, as she recalls the night her daughter Willow was born. She also notes that promises break. Hearts break.

Charlotte is the mother of a child born with a severe and progressively deforming condition: type III OI – medical shorthand for osteogenesis imperfecta, a collagen defect that causes bones so brittle they might break with a stumble, a twist, a sneeze or an over-enthusiastic cuddle. She is also the creation of the international best-selling author Jodi Picoult.

And the debate at the heart of Handle With Care is another of those emotional minefields Picoult has become famous for treading. Charlotte initiates a wrongful-birth lawsuit, hoping that the settlement will allow her to take care of Willow's needs. And as ever with Picoult, there's a twist and an ethical conundrum – the obstretician Charlotte is suing is also her best friend.

Read more of Jodi Picoult's interview here, or pick up a copy of her books now!