Culture Dish

Big week here at Culture Dish! The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and its author (yours truly) were on the cover of Publishers Weekly (please note: THRILLED!). Inside that issue was a profile of me with some of book's backstory, a short excerpt from the book (longer excerpt coming soon in O, the Oprah Magazine), also a story I wrote about the crazy book tour I'm organizing (posted about previously here).  But that was just the beginning of this week's HeLa developments. 

Other development include .... <insert drum roll> ... Macmillan signing on to publish The Immortal Life in the UK, New Zealand, Australia and the Commonwealth, which means those not in the US will be able to get their copies not long after it's published here. Also, early praise for the book is rolling in. See what Ted Conover, Susan Orlean, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Eric Schlosser, and many others are saying about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks below.  Also see what professors are saying about the book and its value to fields as diverse as Virology, Sociology, African American Studies, Law, Ethics, and Journalism.

Early Praise for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:

"Skloot's book is wonderful-deeply felt, gracefully written, sharply reported. It is a story about science but, much more, about life."

"No one can say exactly where Henrietta Lacks is buried: during the many years Rebecca Skloot spent working on this book, even Lacks's hometown of Clover, Virginia, disappeared. But that did not stop Skloot in her quest to exhume, and resurrect, the story of her heroine and her family. What this important, invigorating book lays bare is how easily science can do wrong, especially to the poor. The issues evoked here are giant: who owns our bodies, the use and misuse of medical authority, the unhealed wounds of slavery ... and Skloot, with clarity and compassion, helps us take the long view. This is exactly the sort of story that books were made to tell--thorough, detailed, quietly passionate, and full of revelation."

--TED CONOVER, author of Newjack and The Routes of Man

"Writing with a novelist's artistry, a biologist's expertise, and the zeal of an investigative reporter, Skloot tells a truly astonishing story of racism and poverty, science and conscience, spirituality and family driven by a galvanizing inquiry into the sanctity of the body and the very nature of the life force."

--BOOKLIST (starred review)

"It's extremely rare when a reporter's passion finds its match in a story. Rarer still when the people in that story courageously join that reporter in the search for what we most need to know about ourselves. When this occurs with a moral journalist who is also a true writer, a human being with a heart capable of holding all of life's damage and joy, the stars have aligned. This is an extraordinary gift of a book, beautiful and devastating--a work of outstanding literary reportage. Read it! It's the best you will find in many many years."

--ADRIAN NICOLE LEBLANC, author of Random Family

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks brings to mind the work of Philip K. Dick and Edgar Allan Poe. But this tale is true. Rebecca Skloot explores the racism and greed, the idealism and faith in science that helped to save thousands of lives but nearly destroyed a family. This is an extraordinary book, haunting and beautifully told."

--ERIC SCHLOSSER, author of Fast Food Nation

"Rebecca Skloot has written a marvelous book so original that it defies easy description. She traces the surreal journey that a tiny patch of cells belonging to Henrietta Lacks's body took to the forefront of science. At the same time, she tells the story of Lacks and her family--wrestling the storms of the late twentieth century in America--with rich detail, wit, and humanity. The more we read, the more we realize that these are not two separate stories, but one tapestry. It's part The Wire, part The Lives of the Cell, and all fascinating."

--CARL ZIMMER, author of Microcosm

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks takes the reader on a remarkable journey--compassionate, troubling, funny, smart--and irresistible. Along the way, Rebecca Skloot will change the way you see medical science and lead you to wonder who we should value more--the researcher or the research subject? Ethically fascinating and completely engaging--I couldn't recommend it more."

--DEBORAH BLUM, author of The Poisoner's Handbook and The Monkey Wars

"This is a science biography like the world has never seen. What if one of the great American women of modern science and medicine--whose contribution underlay historic discoveries in genetics, the treatment and prevention of disease, reproduction, and the unraveling of the human genome--was a self-effacing African-American tobacco farmer from the Deep South? A devoted mother of five who was escorted briskly to the Jim Crow section of Johns Hopkins for her cancer treatments? What if the untold millions of scientists, doctors, and patients enriched and healed by her gift never, to this day, knew her name? What if her contribution was made without her knowledge or permission? Ladies and gentlemen, meet Henrietta Lacks. Chances are, at the level of your DNA, your inoculations, your physical health and microscopic well-being, you've already been introduced."

--MELISSA FAY GREENE, author of Praying for Sheetrock and There Is No Me Without You

"If virtues could be cultured like cells, Rebecca Skloot's would be a fine place to start⎯a rare combination of compassion, courage, wisdom, and intelligence. This book is extraordinary. As a writer and a human being, Skloot stands way, way out there ahead of the pack."

--MARY ROACH, author of Stiff and Bonk

"Rebecca Skloot's steadfast commitment to illuminating the life and contribution of Henrietta Lacks, one of the many vulnerable subjects used for scientific advancement, and the subsequent impact on her family is a testament to the power of solid investigative journalism. Her deeply compelling account of one family's long and troubled relationship with America's vast medical-industrial complex is sure to become a cherished classic."

--ALLEN M. HORNBLUM, author of Acres of Skin and Sentenced to Science

For more early praise, see what professors are saying about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and its relevance to academia.