Jodi Picoult stopped by Good Morning America to discuss her latest novel.
The author’s Hollow Bones, published Tuesday by Ballantine, follows Molly Fitzgerald, an emergency preparedness expert who was two months old when her mother was killed in the 9/11 attacks. Molly finds her marriage thrown into disarray after an unexpected event. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the novel, “The queen of social activist novels has done it again. Impressive, important, and fun to read.”
Picoult talked about how part of the novel was inspired by a message she received while writing it.
“The book also touches on postpartum psychosis, because I really wanted to open a conversation about maternal mental health and how the health care system is failing women,” she said. “While I was doing this research, I got a letter from a woman named Solange White, who said, ‘Will you be my voice so that what happened to me doesn’t happen to other people?’ She was writing from jail because she was awaiting trial. She killed her 3-year-old daughter after having a newborn son and developing postpartum psychosis.…It wasn’t until she was arrested that she was diagnosed and treated for postpartum psychosis. First time she ever heard the words was after her arrest.”
Asked what she learned in her research about the condition, Picoult said, “Honestly, that even when women are trying to get help, it is very hard to get the help that you need. Think about it: If you’re a new mom, and you go to your doctor and say, ‘I’m really worried I’m going to hurt my kid,’ what you’re mostly going to hear is, ‘Every new mom feels that way.’”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
