Jodi Picoult’s novel “Nineteen Minutes” was banned from all Utah public schools this year — and all copies were destroyed, which state law requires districts to do.

But during a Saturday evening talk at Salt Lake City’s West High School, Picoult surprised attendees by giving away 600 free copies of the banned book.

“I brought everyone here a copy of ‘Nineteen Minutes,’” Picoult told the crowd. “Because it is not just banned here in Utah. There is literally a law preventing it from being on school library shelves.”

Picoult told the crowd they were welcome keep their copy, but she instead encouraged attendees to give it to a teen who might “need to read it.”

“Books allow people to have empathy and see experiences outside their own,” Picoult said.

Applause and cheers erupted as she finished sharing the news.

The talk was part of the first-ever Salt Lake Book Festival. It also marked Picoult’s final U.S. tour stop for her latest novel, “Hollow Bones.”

The day-long festival hosted at the nearby Gateway shopping center featured several other author panels, independent booksellers, artists and more. Picoult headlined the event.

“Nineteen Minutes” was banned from public schools in January alongside two other novels: “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire, and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky.

Picoult told The Tribune she’s familiar with being a “banned author.” Throughout the U.S., “Nineteen Minutes” was the most commonly banned book during the 2023-24 school year, according to PEN America.

The 2007 New York Times bestseller is about a school shooting in the fictional town of Sterling, New Hampshire. The novel focuses on the aftermath and explores the motivations of the shooter, who was relentlessly bullied.

Utah law requires that a book be removed from all public schools in the state if at least three school districts (or at least two school districts and five charter schools) determine it amounts to “objective sensitive material” — pornographic or otherwise indecent content, as defined by Utah code.

Since the law took effect two years ago, 44 titles have been removed from classroom shelves across the state.

“I like going places where my books are challenged,” Picoult told The Tribune before her talk, “because I think that very often, the audiences there are hungry to hear a point of view like mine.”