Fever
Title: FeverPublished by: Beaufort Books
Release Date: June 21, 2022
Pages: 300
ISBN13: 978-0825309809
Buy the Book: Amazon
Synopsis
From acclaimed author and Professor Emerita of Pediatrics and Epidemiology Janet Gilsdorf comes a captivating and timely novel about a young doctor’s quest to uncover the cause of a mysterious disease killing young children, and the race to find a cure.
In 1984, in the small Brazilian village of Promissão, a young child begins to fuss, her eyes turn pink and her skin flushes with heat. Four days later, she’s dead.
Sidonie Royal, an dedicated physician and scientist, arrives in Promissão to investigate and hopefully cure this insidious new disease. With several young children already dead, and more getting sick by the day, the stakes are high. But Sid’s personal life is also in flux, as she struggles to balance a complicated relationship with her boyfriend, Paul, pressure to start a family from her well-meaning mother, conflict with her surly but brilliant coworker named Eliot, and a budding romantic attraction to her doctoral student’s twin brother. As Sid relentlessly pursues an explanation for the disease, the village’s physician calls in the Global Health Agency, triggering a scientific race that spans two continents and becomes increasingly defined by personal perils.
In a desperate attempt to determine a diagnosis for the disease, Sid sneaks a vial of an infected child’s blood back to her lab in Michigan. As her personal life and romantic relationships fall apart, she becomes consumed by her desire to win the medical race against the GHA. Her volatile (and sometimes emotional) relationship with Eliot will, however, hinder her as much as it will help on her scientific journey. Set against the backdrop of the early days of the AIDS epidemic, Fever is about finding courage in the face of the unknown, security in the lasting power of community, and mastery in one woman’s challenge to prove herself as she aims to make a life-saving—and career-defining—medical discovery.
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Praise
"A chance encounter with a deadly disease affecting children in the remote jungles of Brazil leads one young doctor on a desperate search to find the source of a lethal bacteria that preys on the most vulnerable. Though her solitary search may well cost her her reputation and the man she planned to marry, she forges ahead determined to solve the puzzle. A riveting medical mystery, FEVER offers an exciting glimpse into the life of one determined disease tracker. Set in a time before the current Covid pandemic, the theme—to identify and halt a deadly disease—makes this an intriguing, hard to put down story."
—Roberta Gately, Bestselling author of LIPSTICK IN AFGHANISTAN
"Compelling! Gilsdorf provides a rare, insider’s glance into the life of an infectious diseases physician-scientist dedicated to unlocking the mystery of a feral germ that rapidly emerges and causes the tragic deaths of innocent victims. A moving, timely tale of a woman on the brink of a career-changing medical discovery."
—Barbara Alexander, MD, MHS, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Duke University
Immediate Past President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
"I held my breath many times as I read Janet Gilsdorf’s new novel FEVER – so palpable was the tension! Her heroine, a pediatrician and researcher, embarks on a quest to solve a medical mystery involving young children, taking great risks and suffering personal consequences as she becomes laser-focused on finding answers. The book is not only an engrossing and suspenseful read but a searing look at the
trade-offs we make when failure is not an option."
—Barbara Josselsohn, Author of THE LILAC HOUSE and THE CRANBERRY INN