New York Times Bestseller, Jodi Picoult, has delivered another page turner. Everything about Diana O’Toole’s life is going perfectly. Perfect job, perfect house, perfect soon-to-be-fiance. Until a new virus wreaks havoc on her life (sound familiar?). She takes what was supposed to be a romantic trip to the Galápagos with her partner, alone, and gets trapped there after the island is quarantined and borders are closed (sounds like a good time to me). During her time there Diana must re-examine her life, and she may not come out the other side of this experience the same.
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Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.
But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.
Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. The whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.
Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.
