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A riveting novel based on the true story of the woman who stopped a pandemic, from the bestselling author of Mrs. Poe.
She gave up everything — and changed the world.
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.
"Cullen's portrait of the steadfast, self-sacrificing Dorothy hits home and is made more stirring by the vivid depictions of young polio patients. This author is writing at the top of her game." - Publishers Weekly
"A powerful blend of biography and imagination with a main character whom readers won't soon forget." - Library Journal
"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
"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...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 the race for the cure to that pandemic, and pulls from the shadows of history this extraordinary woman who literally changed our world. I could not put this astounding story down." - Meg Waite Clayton, international bestselling author of The Postmistress of Paris
"Lynn Cullen shows off her mastery of the craft in a thrilling and heart-wrenching tale about the race to eradicate polio...This timely and important novel will touch you, inspire you, and leave you with a sense of hope about what dedicated scientists can achieve." - Stephanie Dray, New York Times bestselling author of The Women of Chateau Lafayette
This information about The Woman with the Cure was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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.
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