Alan Vonlanthen's Reviews > The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

What an amazing book!

I had never read anything like this so far. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks somehow manages to be, at the same time:

a riveting popular science book about HeLa cells,
a moving account of Henrietta Lacks's and her family's story,
an earnest history book that masterfully covers both the story of racial segregation and medical research ethics in 20th century America,
and finally, a beautiful account of the author's own journey, from her obsession with finding what or rather who "HeLa" standed for when she first encoutered HeLa cells, to becoming a part of Henrietta Lack's story.

The book is beautifully written, absolutely amazing, sets a new standard for the genre (or even a new genre altogether?), and if you don't read it now, you're missing out :p