Thank you Berkley Books #partner, for the finished copy of The Woman With the Cure in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: Berkley Books / Penguin Audio
Published: February 21, 2023
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:
I love reading about woman who have made a name for themselves in a man’s world and that is exactly what this book is all about. And more importantly, she isn’t looking for fame, she is only looking for a cure, unlike her male colleagues. A lesson to be learned, for sure!
This book was so fascinating on so many levels. Not only the issues it highlighted in the inequality in the workforce amongst men and women – I mean, Dorothy Horstman was originally denied acceptance to the residency program because she was a woman, but then was later accepted based on her application because the chief didn’t realize it was the same person, but also how few women in general were in science during the 1940’s and 1950s. Why was this?
I knew a little about the polio outbreak, but I didn’t realize how bad it was. And I’m forever grateful that Dorothy Horstman had the determination and grit to stick with her gut when she believed that the way to treat polio lied within the bloodstream. Even when her theories were dismissed, she didn’t give up.
I’m so glad I requested this book. I haven’t read anything by this author before, but I will certainly be checking out her other books. Her writing was so engaging and she clearly did her research on this subject. I think reading this book now, after experiencing a pandemic myself, I have such a greater appreciation, as well as curiosity, for all these outbreaks that happened before my time.
Audio thoughts:
I went back and forth between the audio and print of this book and Hilary Huber does a fantastic job with the narration. She really made the story come to life with her voices and was able to infuse just the right amount of tension and emotion into her voice as needed.
