The release date for the English version of 'The Second Life of Mirielle West' by
Amanda Skenandore is Jul 2021. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
The beautiful life of a silent film star's wife dramatically collapses when she is forced into quarantine at America's sole leper colony in Carville, Louisiana, in this captivating tale of resiliency, revulsion, and the Roaring 20s.
The Second Life of Mirielle West, written by RUSA Award-winning author Amanda Skenandore, vividly depicts the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were deprived of their civil rights, labeled as lepers, and forced into quarantine for the entirety of the 20th century. The novel is based on the little-known true story of America's only leper colony.
Selection from the 2023 Silicon Valley Reads * Editor's Pick from Reader's Digest *
The Second Life of Mirielle West vividly recreates the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of individuals were deprived of their civil rights, labeled as lepers, and forced into isolation for the entirety of the 20th century. Carville is based on the true story of America's sole leper colony.
The solitude and helplessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unfathomable contrast to the seductively glamorous life of bootleg champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood's Golden Age for Mirielle West, a socialite from the 1920s married to a silent film star. She is labeled a leper the moment a doctor finds a pale patch of skin on her palm, and she is sent hundreds of miles from her home to Carville. She adopts a new name to avoid the stigma that comes with the illness for her family and well-known husband.
She initially thinks her exile will be short-lived, but people transported to Carville are more like convicts than patients, and there is no treatment for their illness. Rather, she needs to discover a sense of belonging and direction inside its confines, striving to rediscover her own value while battling an unforeseen destiny.
Because of her training as a registered nurse, Amanda Skenandore's portrayal of the experiences of patients and medical staff at Carville—the stigma, seclusion, experimental treatments, and diverse community—adds depth and genuineness. The Second Life of Mirielle West is a novella about a health catastrophe in America's past, made all the more painful by the author's experiences during another, all too contemporary crisis. It is also a tale of repulsion, resilience, and the Roaring '20s.