Picoult ’87 publishes new novel ‘Lone Wolf’

Known for writing about ethical dilemmas through commercial fiction, in “Lone Wolf” Picoult examines the decision to sustain or terminate life support for a brain trauma victim, asking what happens when two family members have equal claims but conflicting motives in the decision.

“I write about big questions to which I do not know the answers,” Picoult said in an email to The Daily Princetonian. “I was told at Princeton to write what I know, but I was a happy kid from suburbia who knew nothing. I tweaked that to writing something I was willing to learn.”

In the novel, Luke Warren is a well-known, eccentric animal conservationist who has left behind the conflicts in his own fractured family to join a pack of wolves, until a car accident leaves him on life support. The novel explores the wolf pack as a metaphor for family, looking at the tension between individual interests and those of the group as a whole.

In researching for her latest novel, Picoult discovered a real-life Luke Warren. Shaun Ellis lived with wolves to study them from within a wolf pack rather than observe them from a distance. To learn about wolves, Picoult visited him at Combe Martin, a wildlife reserve in southwestern England where he keeps several packs of wolves.

“The best part? Being taught how to howl and having all six packs answer my call,” Picoult said.

Picoult said that she performs months of research for each book she writes in order to better understand the questions she poses in each one. Writing about unanswered questions, she said, often involves challenging one’s own perspectives.

“If a Princeton student wants to write, I’d urge that kid to find something that he wakes up thinking about and falls asleep thinking about,” Picoult said. “That’s your topic.”

Picoult calls herself a commercial fiction writer, but she said that she believes that commercial fiction can have the power not only to entertain, but also to make readers think about complex issues presented in the book.

“I like to believe that craft and technique are not mutually exclusive with sales,” Picoult said. “It’s important for students to realize that as they enter the field of publishing. You can reach a greater number of people ... and yet still create a technically adept, complex piece of writing without having to label yourself as a strictly literary fiction writer.”

She added that she believes that the labels attached to an author’s name come from marketing and not necessarily from readers’ perceptions.

Picoult studied creative writing at the University. Her thesis was an unpublished novel that she said taught her “the difference between writing short fiction and long fiction — the difference, basically, between juggling oranges and elephants.” She credited her experience in the Program in Creative Writing with her decision to become an author.

She said that she has not created a character based on someone she knew at Princeton, though she did say that she sometimes draws upon the conversations she has had and gives them to characters when the time is right.

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“My characters arrive fully formed in my head, like Athena jumping out of Zeus’s forehead,” Picoult said. “I hear their voices and know their flaws and their strengths before I write a single word.”

“Lone Wolf” is Picoult’s 19th novel. Other best-selling titles include “My Sister’s Keeper,” “Nineteen Minutes,” “Handle With Care” and “Sing You Home.”