The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
A medical account chronicling the true series of events in U.S. history that reads like a novel sat on the New York Times Best Seller Nonfiction list for over a year. The book also received the Chicago Tribune's 2010 Heartland Prize which recognizes "recently published works embodying the spirit of the nations heartland".
Review
This distinctive work skillfully puts a human face on the bioethical questions surrounding the HeLa cell line. Henrietta Lacks, an African American mother of five, was undergoing treatment for cancer at Johns Hopkins University in 1951 when tissue samples were removed without her knowledge or permission and used to create HeLa, the "immortal cell line. HeLa has applications, including the development of the polio vaccine. Science writer Skloot, who worked on this book for ten years, en twines Lack's biography, the development for the heLa cell line, and her own story of building a relationship with Lacks's Children. Full of dialog and vivid detail, this reads like a novel, but the science behind the story is also deftly handled. VERDICT: While there are other titles on this controversy (e.g., Michael Gold's A Conspiracy of Cells: One Woman's Immortal Legacy--and the Medical Scandal It Caused), this is the most compelling account for general readers, especially those interested in questions of medical research ethics. Highly recommended. [See Skloot's essay, p. 126; Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/09.]-- Carla Lee, Univ. of Virginia Lib., Charlottesville
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