Skloot brilliantly weaves together the story of Henrietta Lacks--a woman whose cells have been unwittingly used for scientific research since the 1950s--with the birth of bioethics, and the dark history of experimentation on African Americans.

Reviews

"One of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books I've read in a very long time...'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks'...floods over you like a narrative dam break, as if someone had managed to distill and purify the more addictive qualities of 'Erin Brockovich, ' 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' and 'The Andromeda Strain.'...it feels like the book Ms. Skloot was born to write. It signals the arrival of a raw but quite real talent."--Dwight Garner, "The New York Times"
"Skloot's vivid account begins with the life of Henrietta Lacks, who comes fully alive on the page...'Immortal Life' reads like a novel."--Eric Roston, "The Washington Post
""Gripping...by turns heartbreaking, funny and unsettling...raises troubling questions about the way Mrs. Lacks and her family were treated by researchers and about whether patients should control or have financial claims on tissue removed from their bodies."--Denise Grady, "New York Times"
"The Immortal Life of Hen