Status
Available
Publication
Broadway Books (2011), 381 pages
Library's review
"A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis)
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics." A Kirkus starred review, www.kirkusreviews.com
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis)
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demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics." A Kirkus starred review, www.kirkusreviews.com
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Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — Non-Fiction — 2011)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Science & Technology — 2010)
Ambassador Book Award (Winner — 2011)
Salon Book Award (Nonfiction — 2010)
Oregon Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — 2013)
Grand Canyon Reader Award (Nominee — Teen — 2015)
AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books (Finalist — 2011)
Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Longlist — Nonfiction — 2011)
Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize (Non-Fiction — 2010)
Wellcome Trust Book Prize (Winner — 2010)
NCSLMA Battle of the Books (High School — 2018)
Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award (Finalist — Non-Fiction — 2010)
ALA Notable Book (2011)
Black-Eyed Susan Book Award (Nominee — High School — 2013)
National Academies Communication Award (Winner — 2011)
Virginia Literary Awards (Winner — Nonfiction — 2011)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Science — 2010)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2010)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2010)
Library Journal Top Ten Book (2010)
Booklist Top of the List: Best of Editors' Choice (Adult Nonfiction — 2010)
Notable Books List (Nonfiction — 2011)
ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound (Science and Technology)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (2010)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2010-02-02
ISBN
9781400052189