The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
2010 · Rebecca Skloot · 370 pages · Nonfiction
Rebecca Skloot spent more than a decade researching the story of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951 and became one of the most important tools in modern medicine. The result is a book that works as science writing, biography, investigative journalism, and a meditation on race and medical ethics in America. It's deeply moving, occasionally infuriating, and important in ways that extend well beyond its subject. The science is accessible, the human story is devastating, and the questions it raises about consent and exploitation have only become more urgent since publication.