If anybody had to write about Covid, I guess Jodi Picoult would always have been the author I most wanted to do it. Picoult has built a career handling extremely challenging topics with great sensitivity, and her latest book is no exception. It's partly an epistolary novel; the horror of the spreading coronavirus unfolding via emails from our protagonist's partner. This beautifully captures the frustration, and fear, of hospital staff faced with managing cases in the midst of the global pandemic. It's a book of two halves, exploring a variety of themes including mother/daughter relationships, our expectations of life, grief, loss and priorities. Picoult has produced a snapshot which perfectly captures the mood of the past 18 months. I found her note at the end about her lockdown experience, research and motivation for the novel enlightening.