During her book tour of the United States, British writer Anne Penketh, right, poses with Lisa Friedman, the deputy editor of Climate Wire who is married to the owner of Bacio Pizzeria in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)

Anne Penketh, a former British journalist and correspondent who now lives in Paris, has written a novel of a widow who goes to work in the Washington office of a multinational food company.

While the novel can be categorized as “chick lit,” Penketh said in an interview that she considers many of the activities of U.S. food companies to be “a crime against humanity.”

Her book reflects that view, and U.S. food company executives and lobbyists may be interested to see how they are portrayed.)

• The Independent — Sugar levels in what we eat and drink: Why the tide may finally be turning against Big Food
• Amazon — “Food Fight: A Novel” by Anne Penketh