The Book This is a true story of HeLa.
Henrietta Lacks was a poor tobacco famer from Southern Virginia in the United States who fell ill with cervical cancer aged 30. On her death, she was buried in an unmarked grave.
But, as this book explores, Henrietta lives on thanks to her cells which are still alive today!
While she (and her family who couldn't even afford health insurance) remained unknown, Henrietta's cells - taken without her knowledge - became important tools in medical research. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions and have been vital in developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilisation.
This book is a debut novel and when first published in November 2010 was awarded the Wellcome Trust Book Prize for an outstanding work of fiction or non-fiction on the theme of health and medicine. It was also awarded a Salon Book Award and selected as one of the The New York Times Notable Books of the Year.
It is a story that raises questions about ethics, race, medicine and scientific discovery.
The Author
Rebecca Skloot is a journalist and science writer. She is a contributing editor of Popular Science and her work has also been published in the The New York Times and O: The Oprah Magazine. Skloot is a graduate in Biological Sciences and a masters in creative nonfiction.
More Information
For more details about both the book and author, see http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/
