Picoult wrote her first story at age five, titled 'The Lobster Which Misunderstood'. She has described her family as 'non-practicing Jewish'. She graduated from Smithtown High School East in June 1983. Picoult was born in Nesconset, New York, on Long Island and has one younger brother. She has been described as, 'a paradox, a hugely popular, at times controversial writer, ignored by academia, who questions notions of what constitutes literature simply by doing what she does best.' Early life Over her writing career, Picoult has covered a wide range of controversial or moral issues, including abortion, the Holocaust, assisted suicide, race relations, eugenics, LGBT rights, fertility issues, religion, the death penalty, and school shootings. She is often characterised as an author of chick-lit. She frequently centers storylines on a moral dilemma or a procedural drama which pits family members against one another. Picoult writes popular fiction which can be characterised as family saga. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 languages.

Picoult has published 28 novels, as well as short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Jodi Lynn Picoult ( / ˈ dʒ oʊ d i ˈ p iː k oʊ/ ) is an American writer.

Nineteen Minutes is New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult's most raw, honest, and important novel yet.Picoult served as the 2013 Harry Middleton Lecturer at the LBJ Presidential Library And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens - until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge. In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist you can fold laundry for a family of five. In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult