The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

What The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about

In 1951, cells were taken from a woman named Henrietta Lacks without her knowledge. Those cells, known to researchers as HeLa, went on to help bring about the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization. They have been traded by the billions. Yet Lacks herself, a poor Black tobacco farmer, is barely known, and her own family has struggled to afford health insurance.

Rebecca Skloot follows the trail from the segregated ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to Lacks's hometown of Clover, Virginia, and on to East Baltimore today. Along the way she places one family's story inside the wider history of experiments carried out on African Americans and the rise of bioethics. At its heart is Lacks's daughter, who has spent her life wanting to know the mother she never met. A warm, probing read for anyone curious about medicine, consent and who benefits from scientific progress.

Questions about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

When was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks published?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot was first published in 2010.

Was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks one of the best books of 2010?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is #8 on BookWard's Best Books of 2010, out of 43 2010 books that cleared our data bar. 658 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (46 ratings); 39 are reading it right now.

Why is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on the Best Books of 2010 list?

658 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (46 ratings); 39 are reading it right now.

More of the best books of 2010

• The Lost Hero Rick Riordan, #1
• The Way of Kings Brandon Sanderson, #2
• Divergent Veronica Roth, #3
• The Personal MBA Josh Kaufman, #4
• The Red Pyramid Rick Riordan, #5
• It's Not Summer Without You Jenny Han, #6

See the full Best Books of 2010, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.