The glamorous world of a silent film starβs wife abruptly crumbles when sheβs forcibly quarantined at the Carville Lepers Home in this page-turning story of courage, resilience, and reinvention set in 1920s Louisiana and Los Angeles. Based on little-known history, this timely book will strike a chord with readers of Fiona Davis, Tracey Lange, and Marie Benedict.
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Based on the true story of Americaβs only leper colony,Β The Second Life of Mirielle WestΒ brings vividly to life the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were stripped of their civil rights, branded as lepers, and forcibly quarantined throughout the entire 20th century.
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For Mirielle West, a 1920βs socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywoodβs Golden Age.Β When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, sheβs immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease.
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At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate.
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As a registered nurse, Amanda Skenandoreβs medical background adds layers of detail and authenticity to the experiences of patients and medical professionals at Carville β the isolation, stigma, experimental treatments, and disparate community. A tale of repulsion, resilience, and the Roaring β20s,Β The Second Life of Mirielle WestΒ is also the story of a health crisis in Americaβs past, made all the more poignant by the authorβs experiences during another, all-too-recent crisis.Β
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