The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By: Rebecca Skloot

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Bahni Turpin

Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Number one New York Times best seller.

Now a major motion picture from HBO® starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne.

One of the “most influential” (CNN), “defining” (Lit Hub), and “best” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) books of the decade.

One of essence’s 50 most impactful Black books of the past 50 years.

Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, O: The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Financial Times, New York, Independent (UK), Times (UK), Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Globe, and Mail.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than 60 years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than 20 years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family - past and present - is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family - especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

©2010 Rebecca Skloot (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

Winner of The Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for nonfiction

"The story of modern medicine and bioethics - and, indeed, race relations - is refracted beautifully, and movingly.” (Entertainment Weekly)

"Writing with a novelist's artistry, a biologist's expertise, and the zeal of an investigative reporter, Skloot tells a truly astonishing story of racism and poverty, science and conscience, spirituality and family driven by a galvanizing inquiry into the sanctity of the body and the very nature of the life force." (

Booklist)

There’s more to this story than meets the (title) eye!

Boy, was this an educational/informative read! Was recommended to me, but wasn’t sure I’d last. There’s such an interesting backstory to the initial impression here. The good stuff …… cultural history of cell science discovery & development; how a multi-generational family was woven through it;
justice/non-justice; a gamut of characters. It’s worth it to read to the end.

I’m in Pharma and never knew…

Both narrators were solid. I think they captured everyone’s voice well enough. I believe the book gave a very comprehensive account of what happened to the family.

History in the Shadows

Excellent performance of the title the immortal life of Henrietta lacks. Content was exceptionally and thoroughly laid out.

Sad, interesting and educational

I appreciate how the book was more about Henrietta's descendents and her daughters' tenacity to find out about her mother.

I didn’t think I would, but I loved this book!

It was a book club book I was going to get through but from the very beginning this book was facinating!

That it’s a true story about treatment of a wonderful woman and how she gets screwed by science!

Excellent book loved the people in the book! The author is very caught up in the story of Harriette !

Powerful

Such depth to the story. As we have BRCA 1 in our family, I now know that Henriettas cells or research from them are still around for testing to combat the devastating disease as well as many others. Special thanks to the Lacks family.

The lack of regards for Mrs. Lacks and the misinformation of the time in which she lived.

I liked how thorough the writer was in telling this moving story of how many people can be affected by a single act.

Rebecca Skloots dedication prevails

Incredibly engaging and given that this history has so much to do with all humans alive today; also for anyone we know who has not died from a curable infection or certain cancers and that fewer and fewer people die from diseases that are now almost eradicated in many parts of the world, suffering and death are at an all time low due to this amazing woman's cells.

I want to thank Rebecca Skloot for her tenacity and without her willingness to give so much of HER life to telling the truth on this story; we would be forever ignorant to such an important and integral part of all our lives.

The story is one of innocence, intrigue and all out war; a fight that the Lacks family may never win, but with public outcry, and this book; I believe that this part of her story may very well change.

I think that there will always be pushback from the medical and scientific community, when it comes to our rights about our bodies and as human beings. Also, some of the issues raised in this book will be ones we will be addressing for the next few hundred years! I believe that these and others we can not even comprehend; will be issues that societies as a whole will hotly debate and those societies woes in this area will carry on debates of one kind or other for all time.

I highly recommend this book it is truly one that will be cited in history books and should be used (and most likely will be) in all medical and school curriculums.

Non-fiction at its best

This was an outstanding listen, with superb narration. I was impressed with Rebecca Skloot's remarkable powers of observation and objectivity, and found it refreshing not to be walloped by a writer's agenda.

I was expecting the science story to be intriguing, and it is, but the interweaving of the Lacks family members into the fabric of the narrative is masterful. The real-life events of Henrietta's children held me in a grip, and often kept me listening long past the points I planned to pause.