In Prison with Jodi Picoult

By Andrea Sachs

Q&A Best-selling author Jodi Picoult often takes on moral quandaries in her work. Which is one of the reasons she sweet-talked her way onto Death Row. TIME caught up with her on the eve of her new book's release

TIME: One of the characters is a prisoner on death row. How did you study up on that? Picoult: I sweet-talked my way to the death cells [at an Arizona prison]. Nobody I met on death row who works there believes in the death penalty. They all say it's their job.

TIME: How did that experience affect your own beliefs about capital punishment? Picoult: Even as I was writing this book, I was flip-flopping all over the place. I'm still leery of it.

TIME: You write about such dark subjects. What was it like for you growing up? Picoult: I had this ridiculously happy childhood. I had absolutely no trauma in my childhood. If anyone ever assumed that my books were autobiographical, they'd be sorely disappointed, because none of these things happened to me.

Online exclusive extra question:

What's different about this book than your previous books? This one is very timely in a lot of ways for me. It's no coincidence that I wanted it published during an election year. Many of my books come from what if questions that I can't answer, things that I'm worried about as either a woman, a wife, a mom, an American. And that really was the impetus for Change of Heart for me. As an American I wanted to explore... why are we the only first world country that still has capital punishment? Is it because we're too afraid to really examine the sytem, or is it because we really truly belive that this is the best way to deter future crime?

PODCAST Listen to the full interview with Jodi Picoult above or at time.com/podcast

MODERN ROMANCE This sparkling first novel, Beginner's Greek, starts with a couple who meet cute. Then James Collins (a former TIME editor) deftly keeps them apart in a most satisfying way.