The Woman With The Cure

 

The Woman With The Cure

Lynn Cullen

Publication date: February 21, 2023 by Berkley

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Rating: 4 👢👢👢👢

Summary: She gave up everything— and changed the world.

A riveting novel based on the true story of the woman who stopped a pandemic, from the bestselling author of Mrs. Poe.

In 1940s and ’50s America, polio is as dreaded as the atomic bomb. No one’s life is untouched by this disease that kills or paralyzes its victims, particularly children. Outbreaks of the virus across the country regularly put American cities in lockdown. Some of the world’s best minds are engaged in the race to find a vaccine. The man who succeeds will be a god.

But Dorothy Horstmann is not focused on beating her colleagues to the vaccine. She just wants the world to have a cure. Applying the same determination that lifted her from a humble background as the daughter of immigrants, to becoming a doctor –often the only woman in the room--she hunts down the monster where it lurks: in the blood.

This discovery of hers, and an error by a competitor, catapults her closest colleague to a lead in the race. When his chance to win comes on a worldwide scale, she is asked to sink or validate his vaccine—and to decide what is forgivable, and how much should be sacrificed, in pursuit of the cure.

My thoughts: Has anyone else noticed the AMAZING stories that are being published about previously unknown women? It is about time that all of these pioneering women get their due! This book brings to light the extraordinary woman Dr. Dorothy Horstmann. While almost all of her colleagues competed against one another to be the first, Dorothy simply wanted to defeat the disease. As a woman in what was designated a man's field, she had to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles that were thrown in her path at every turn. Cullen tackles Horstmann's story head on. At times the book is dense as should be expected with such a complicated subject matter. At other times though Cullen finds a balance which permits the reader a chance to see a softer side of Dorothy. This book is a haunting reminder that pandemics are cyclical and science provides the answers for beating them. 

I received a copy of this title via NetGalley.