The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Part readable medical history, party family history, part detective story…

This is the story of Skloot’s determined research into the source of a line of seemingly immortal cells that have been used in some of the major scientific advancements of the last 60 years and the story of Henrietta Lacks, a tobacco farmer and mother of five whose cells were harvested for scientific research without her or her family’s knowledge before she died of an extreme case of cancer in 1951. All perfectly legal at the time and, in some situations, perfectly legal today—this makes this story all the more interesting and relevant. Part readable medical history, part family history, part detective story—Skloot takes the reader on a memorable journey as she searches for answers both for her research and for the family she became intimately involved with.

Add to all that—it has been named to Library Journal’s inaugural Top Ten Best Books of the Year list, and is #1 on Amazon’s Best Books of the Year.