YCReads

Set in the fall of 1916, this story takes place in the isolated community of Tamarack Lake in the Adirondacks.  Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages, and the poor, mostly immigrant, patients fill the larger sanatorium.  Set in a historical period of great progress in science and medicine, I found the references to chemistry daunting on occasion.  Especially intereting are the advances in x-ray technology furing this perios.  However, these references in no way take away from the interesting lives of these recovering patients and their backgrounds, interests and relationships.  To provide stimulation in this community, one of the patients begins a weekly “discussion” group.  As passions and vulnerabilities mix during these regular meetings, his efforts lead to secret attachments, a surprise betrayal and a tragic accident.  I found the author, a national book award winner for Ship Fever, to be an excellent storyteller.

Jennifer L. - York                                     ISBN  9780393061086