December 5, 2022
Cullen’s winning historical (after The Sisters of Summit Avenue) draws on the life of Dorothy Hortsmann, a doctor whose contribution to the development of the polio vaccine helped eradicate the disease. In 1940, Dorothy is rejected from Vanderbilt’s residency program because she’s a woman. Later, the chief of medicine offers the same spot to a “D.M. Hortsmann” and is surprised when Dorothy shows up. (“She won’t last,” is his verdict.) A clinical epidemiologist, and often the only female doctor among esteemed scientists such as Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, Dorothy dedicates her life to confirming her hypothesis (rejected at the time by the scientific community) that polio travels through the blood to the nervous system, and along the way she becomes a Yale fellow and professor, and travels extensively to polio outbreaks. She falls madly in love with heroic Arne Holm, who saved 7,000 Danish Jews from the Nazis, but, as Cullen writes, “crushing a disease” would always be her first love. Dorothy is humble and underfunded, and her research and findings are often either overlooked or duplicated by men who take the credit—until her discovery opens the door for the vaccine. Cullen’s portrait of the steadfast, self-sacrificing Dorothy hits home and is made more stirring by the vivid depictions of young polio patients. This author is writing at the top of her game. Agent: Margaret Sutherland Brown, Folio Literary.
February 1, 2023
Based in fact yet full of feeling, Cullen's (The Sisters of Summit Avenue) latest novel is an engaging story of an unsung heroine and her role in an important chapter in modern medical history. During the 1940s and 1950s, a polio epidemic caused panic and lockdowns across the United States. Most accounts of the search for a polio cure mention the work of Albert Sabin and Jonas Salk, but there is a real-life hidden figure whose research led to the development of an effective polio vaccine: Dorothy Horstmann, a clinical epidemiologist who found that, contrary to the medical wisdom of the time, polio travels through the blood to the nervous system. Cullen paints a richly layered portrait of this dedicated and determined doctor, set against a background of midcentury postwar America. There are heartbreaking scenes of young polio patients, poignant accounts of the personal cost paid by those engaged in the search for a cure, and clinical descriptions of the disease, the treatments used, and the experiments conducted in the quest for a cure. VERDICT A powerful blend of biography and imagination with a main character whom readers won't soon forget.--Carolyn M. Mulac
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January 20, 2023
Jonas Salk may be famous for his work inventing a polio vaccine, but he didn't do it alone. Cullen's latest (after The Sisters of Summit Avenue, 2019) shines a light on the development of the vaccine that changed the world through the story of some of the more unsung heroes of medicine--the women. Primarily following a fictionalized version of Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, the real scientist whose work made the polio vaccine possible, the novel also spends time focusing on the wives, secretaries, and other female doctors who each in their own way sacrificed and worked for the development of the vaccine that would save millions. The Woman with the Cure is a gripping novel, leaving the audience breathlessly awaiting each new discovery. Dr. Horstmann makes for a compelling heroine that readers will root for and grieve with. Cullen is a master of bringing little-known women of history to the forefront, and fans of her previous work won't be disappointed. Also recommended for fans of Marie Benedict and Paula McLain.
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