Praise for Carville’s Cure

“Pam Fessler’s fascinating Carville’s Cure

... remarkable and vivid ... meticulously

researched account illuminates the

endless ways, large and small, in which

those confined to Carville sought to

determine the shape of their own lives.”

— By Laura Kolbe

The Wall Street Journal, Aug 8, 2020

“Carville’s Cure is a powerful story of all the

ways that infectious diseases bring out the

best and the worst in people: hope and

fear, science and faith, humanity and

cruelty. It is the very best kind of history: 

one that is alive with the people whose

story it tells, and one that teaches us how

to face challenges we will face in the

future. It will move you."

— Ron Klain, White House Ebola

Response Coordinator, 2014-15

"Throughout my professional life, I’ve

traveled to many places and at many times

tried to explain Carville to people around

the world. Compared to Pam’s efforts mine

were feeble. This is an excellent story of

my hometown."

— James Carville, political strategist

“[A] fine history, by turns heartbreaking

and infuriating … Fessler paints a clear

picture of a class of people who were

confined at Carville typically for life,

isolated, stripped of their identities [and]

their civil rights … Vignettes of the patients,

some tracked over decades, humanize the

story ... told with empathy and a sharp eye

for society’s intolerances.”

— Kirkus Review

“NPR journalist Pam Fessler has

put her considerable professional and

personal skills to work, unmasking the

history and stigma of this ancient disease.

That stigma, which lingers despite

scientific evidence, dissipates with

this book. Fessler’s skills as a journalist

and humanist shine new light on old

terrors, with well-told stories of lives

and science."

— Susan Stamberg, Special

Correspondent, NPR

“By turns heart-wrenching, inspiring, and

infuriating, this is a fast-paced and highly

readable account of attempts by patients,

their families, doctors and American

society in general to deal with the worlds’

most misunderstood disease.  Written

with the eye of an experienced journalist

and the voice of a novelist, this book tells

the story – stranger than fiction -- of the

patients, nuns, doctors, movie stars, and

politicians who have struggled to come to

terms with the stigma and discrimination

attached to leprosy.  The book is

painstakingly researched and documented,

and unfolds dramatically through the

words of the patients and other

participants through their letters and

personal papers as well as newspaper

accounts and interviews.”  

— Dr. David Scollard, retired director,

National Hansen’s Disease Program

“Pam Fessler's powerful book combines

fascinating medical history with a deeply

moving family story about a disease that

has been misunderstood and stigmatized

since the Old Testament.”

   — David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-

       winning author of A Good American

       Family: The Red Scare and My Father 

“Pam Fessler's extraordinary knack for

story-telling brings home the shameful

history of discrimination and exile of those

battling leprosy. At the same time, she lifts

up the resilience and humanity of a

community largely erased from our history.

It's a moving and passionate appeal to our

consciences.”

 — EJ Dionne, author of Code Red: How

Progressives and Moderates Can Unite

to Save Our Country

“Behind barbed wire on a onetime sugar

plantation on the Louisiana bayou,

generations of Americans who had the bad

luck to contract leprosy were forcibly

confined by their own government,

stripped of their most basic rights, and left

to suffer and die. Pam Fessler, by shining a

light on their stories - including a surprising

family connection of her own - has

redeemed them. She has also left us with

a sobering reminder of the costs of

demonizing disease and provided a must-

read for this time of new infectious threats”

 — Meredith Wadman, M.D., Science

Magazine reporter and author of The

Vaccine Race: Science, Politics and the

Human Costs of Defeating Disease

"NPR correspondent Fessler’s polished

and compassionate debut examines the

history of Hansen’s disease (the modern

name for leprosy) in America through the

story of the Louisiana Leper Home in

Carville, La. In the 1890s, New Orleans

dermatologist Isadore Dyer established

the quarantine facility for leprosy patients

on the grounds of a defunct sugar

plantation. In 1921, the U.S. Public Health

Service took over Carville (as it was called

by locals), making it the only national

leprosarium in America. Fessler profiles

several patients (most of whom were sent

to Carville by mandatory state reporting

laws), including her husband’s

grandfather, and New Orleans debutante

Betty Parker, who fell in love with a

fellow patient and ran away with him.

Fessler also documents the 1941

discovery that the antibiotic promin

could be effective in treating Hansen’s

disease, and notes that by the 1980s

additional medicines had slowed new

outbreaks and made most cases

manageable. Carville’s planned shutdown

was delayed until 1999, Fessler writes,

because many remaining patients had

nowhere else to go. Her well-researched

and articulate account humanizes

sufferers and caregivers alike, and

offers hope in the medical field’s

ability to halt the spread of contagious

illness. Readers will be enlightened and

encouraged.”

— Review April 8, 2020 by

Publishers Weekly

“Fessler presents inspiring and tragic

stories of patients who mostly experienced

Carville as a prison, sometimes a sanctuary

... Heartbreaking and infuriating.”

   — Tony Miksanek, Booklist