Helpful Score: 2
This is a fine book, but it requires patience. This book intertwines the stories of two women, centuries apart, caught up in daring experimental campaigns to end epidemics (one of smallpox, another of AIDS). It is also about how politicized these initiatives become and how little control any one person has over the outcome. Because these are two separate stories, the book is complex and slow to get started. As the stories progress, we come to care deeply about these women and their travails. We cheer for their personal victories, however small in comparison to the challenges they face, and for the triumph of hope in their lives.
Very much worth reading.
Very much worth reading.
Helpful Score: 1
Very, very entertaining, very, very well written. The two stories of Isabel and Alma are put together in a way that makes them mirror each other, a voice from the past with a voice from the present. I enjoyed the character Tera - everyone knows someone like her. The idea of doing something crazy on a whim to try and solve a problem bigger than oneself is prevalent, as well as the victories and consequences.
