Sterling is an ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens – until the day its complacency is shattered by an act of violence. Josie Cormier, the daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state’s best witness, but she can’t remember what happened in front of her own eyes – or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show – destroying the closest of friendships and families. Nineteen Minutes asks what it means to be different in our society, who has the right to judge someone else, and whether anyone is ever really who they seem to be.
Nineteen Minutes is the fourteenth novel by the American author, Jodi Picoult. It was Picoult’s first book to debut at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.