Only A Book Apart discussion

Sorry for the late update! Been busy travelling! Kind of mixed feelings about this one as we were discussing this book through. There is an obvious depiction about the events of this novel being that of normalizing disease in a world where people become ostracized for being afflicted with the unknown. And it’s good to see a book that humanizes disease and the people behind them- people do not become the disease they have. There is an incorporation of real people in history into the story, which creates a realistic storyline; it shows how so many people were affected and brought into the life of trying to look at Leprosy (formerly, Hansen’s disease), who worked tirelessly, but also more broadly, the endurance of the human spirit- to keep living, to move on, to move forward, and to find new meaning in life.