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I really enjoyed this historical novel about life in an American leper colony in the 1920s. Historical fiction is my genre but add the sub category of medical history and and I am sucked in every time. The main character of The Second Life Of Mirielle West is a fictional wife of a silent film movie star who is used to a glamorous life in Los Angeles when she goes to the doctor because she accidentally burns herself on her curling iron getting ready for a glamorous Hollywood party. Soon she finds her self riding in a box car to a leper colony in Louisiana that is filled with disfigured individuals. When they arrived their box car was burned to ashes. The next couple years of her life is detailed in the book as she adjusts to life in a leper colony. She begins as a spoiled person who thinks only of herself and matures into a much more well adjusted person emotionally. She makes real friends instead of the surface relationships she had back in LA. Although the story is not a true story the descriptions of life in Carville are well researched. The author, Amanda Skenandore, is an RN who has written several books with medical history as the theme and I will be reading more of her work. Carville Leper Colony is now a National Historical Site with a museum that can be visited. They have a website HERE. Please click on the book title and authors name above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video about Carville below.
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