The Woman with the Cure

Informationen zum Autor Lynn Cullen grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and is the bestselling author of The Sisters of Summit Avenue , Twain's End , and Mrs. Poe , which was named an NPR 2013 Great Read and an Indie Next List selection. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, their dog, and two unscrupulous cats. Klappentext "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"-- Leseprobe 1 Nashville, Tennessee, 1941 Say, Horstmann, want to meet a jerk?" The voice seeped into the melee in which Dorothy, a modern-day Gulliver, was being roped down by tiny little men. Apparently, she'd stumbled into the little guys' mysterious world, and they were hopping mad. She peeled open an eye. In front of the cardboard boxes in the storeroom where the residents liked to steal a nap, a baby-faced redheaded man was peering down the front of his white gown at her. Probably not a dream. Barry Montgomery was a resident at Vanderbilt, same as she. But she wasn't sure. She'd slept thirty minutes over the last forty-eight hours-not uncommon these past ten months at Vandy-and her senses couldn't be trusted. She shut her stinging eye. "Do I?" "Oh, I think you'll want to meet this one, if the nurses are any indication." Over the radio that Dorothy forgot she'd turned on, the sound of clacking typewriters announced the end of orchestral music and the start of a news program. She pushed herself upright and snapped off the receiver. "Don't you want to hear the news?" Barry had a newborn baby and two kids, but with his carroty cowlick and ruddy cheeks, he looked like he should be carrying a slingshot and harmonica in his pocket, not tongue depressors and an otoscope. He was thirty, a year older than she was-did she look so young? "What country do you think the Germans are invading today?" Even half-asleep, unease slithered into her gut. On another side of the planet, horrible things were happening, yet they were carrying on here in the States as if this were not so. This was not sustainable. "Are there any more countries in Europe left for them to occupy?" "Russia." Barry's stethoscope bounced against his white gown as he pulled her to her feet. "Upsy daisy! Come get a look at this character-if you can see him through the wall of panting nurses." "I can't believe I'm giving up precious sleep for this." "Yeah, yeah. You can thank me later." Her dream hadn't quite left her as Barry prodded her down the hall. It must have come from studying Group A streptococcus under a microscope earlier. What robust lives bacteria lived! When they found themselves in a favorable new situation, like a plate of blood agar, the happy little hedonists rejoiced at their good luck and threw themselves into a frenzy of feasting, after which th...

Klappentext

*"Huge applause... women have always been in science—despite those who would pretend otherwise.” --Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry*

• 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.

  Zusammenfassung
  The Woman with the Cure is a scrupulously researched history lesson wrapped up in a modern exploration of the evolving role women have played in society. Dorothy Horstmann and her contemporaries deserve their place in America s medical hall of fame and Lynn Cullen s resurrection has done them justice.
  *Atlanta Journal Constitution*

  Everyone knows Sabin and Salk created the polio vaccine, but without the work of Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, there never would have been a vaccine in the first place. So huge applause to The Woman With the Cure for bringing Dorothy's brilliant work to the forefront and for reminding us that women have always been in science despite those who would pretend otherwise.
  **Bonnie Garmus, **New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

  In The Woman with the Cure, Lynn Cullen illuminates the story of Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, a scientist who was instrumental in discovering the polio vaccine. Through meticulous research and elegant prose, Cullen pens an important and timely story of one of the previously unheard voices of medical history in the race to cure a pandemic and the result is a rewarding read that both enlightens and entertains.
  Pam Jenoff, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Woman with the Blue Star

  "With emotional honesty and prose that rings with lyrical detail, Lynn Cullen expertly takes us back to the world where polio slays our children and a pandemic places us in isolation. Cullen shows us who we might be without the genius of women who are willing to put it all on the line for a cure. From behind the eyes and heart of a woman determined to save a generation of children by hunting down a cure, The Woman With the Cure is an enlightening and immersive read. Working against time and mystery, Dr. Dorothy Horstmann must not only battle the mysterious virus but also a system that can t bear a woman at its center. Dorothy s scientific imagination shook the medical community, and Lynn Cullen s re-imagining of her life and work is powerful, visionary and inspired."
  **Patti Callahan Henry,*New York Times Bestselling Author of Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis*

  The warm and wonderful The Woman with the Cure, brings brilliantly to life the story of the real Dorothy Horstmann, whose extraordinary discovery made possible the vaccines that ended the polio pandemic of the 1940s and 50s. Lynn Cullen s novel deftly breaks down the science and brilliantly delivers a complex cast of characters in a compelling page-turner of a novel about…