EBThat sounds so overdramatic. But it’s true. Back before the invention of penicillin, people could and sometimes did die from small scratch. If you’ve been watching the Mildred Pierce miniseries, you saw a small child die within 24 hours after developing a fever.
So: what does this have to do with Harper Perennial? Well: I didn’t know any of this until I read Lauren Belfer’s novel A Fierce Radiance, which went on sale yesterday. I’m not normally a big reader of historical fiction, but the one thing that can get me into such a story is if I feel like I’m really learning about an unusual facet of a time or a place that I didn’t know before. And I had NO IDEA that scraping your knee could kill you, as it does to the daughter of the main character, Claire Shipley. Claire is a photojournalist working for LIFE and slowly uncovering the dirty dealings and danger that can develop right along with any rapid innovation that stands to a) save lives and b) make somebody very, very rich.
For a more extensive review, check out Booking Mama or Alison’s Bookmarks. In addition to writing a really interesting book, Lauren is also a total sweetheart, so you may want to follow her on facebook, too.
