The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Written by Rebecca Skloot

Narrated by Cassandra Campell

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells -- taken without her knowledge -- became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. Yet Henrietta's family did not learn of her 'immortality' until more than twenty years after her death, with devastating consequences . . .

Rebecca Skloot's fascinating account is the story of the life, and afterlife, of one woman who changed the medical world forever. Balancing the beauty and drama of scientific discovery with dark questions about who owns the stuff our bodies are made of, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an extraordinary journey in search of the soul and story of a real woman, whose cells live on today in all four corners of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Jan 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9780230754058

Rebecca Skloot

Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer whose articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; Prevention; Glamour; and others. She has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s Radiolab and PBS’s NOVAscienceNOW, and is a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine and guest editor of The Best AmericanScience Writing 2011. Her work has been anthologized in several collections, including The Best Creative Nonfiction. She is a former vice president of the National Book Critics Circle, and has taught creative non-fiction and science journalism at the University of Memphis, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. She lives in Chicago. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is her first book. It is being translated into more than twenty languages and adapted into an HBO film produced by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball. For more information, visit her website at RebeccaSkloot.com, where you’ll find links to follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Reviews for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

[jessica · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting book! 6stars plus.
Also very good narration.
However, this audiobook misses 10-15 seconds of narrative in places. This feels jarring and very disorienting. The missing pieces aren’t so bad that you cannot understand the chapter but enough to take you out of it and cause irritation. I was driving, thinking I somehow lost attention in the same places over an over again. Rewind to start of chapter... same happens. This repeated a couple of times till I understood its a problem with this edition.

[Manisha D · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really admire the author's tenacity and work at handling such a sensitive story . She's done it in a way that helps the average person understand the messy and complicated story of HeLa and tissue research.
Great production on this audiobook, really made the experience of listening to it enjoyable.

[マリMary · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic book! I couldn't stop reading it.A beautiful story of the science around hela cells from Henrietta Lax and the human story of her family and how they were affected by her life and death and the immortality of her cancer cells.

[Nomfundo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great introduction to the concepts of bioethics simultaneously weaving in the story of the Lacks family. The author gave a face to the HeLa cell culture in a respectful way.