The Vines is a timely novel which takes us back to 1904 and a woman named Cora who is a host to multiple viruses including, typhoid and the Spanish flu.
Cora comes to the island as a teen with her younger sister to be helped by physicians on North Brother Island in New York harbor where a hospital has been built for patients with communicable diseases. Cora comes to the attention of a German doctor named Dr. Ulrich Gettler. Cora shows no symptoms of the diseases she carries and the doctor wants to study her and figure out a cure based off of her immune system.
Here's where it gets weird. The story goes back and forth from present to past and Cora is still alive and still looks like a teenager. She is trapped on North Brother Island in what is now the ruins of the early 1900's hospital. She cannot leave because when she tries to, her symptoms of all the diseases she carries start to show themselves.
Cora has been passed down as a human test subject through the medical researchers in the Gettler family.
This story was fascinating to me. I really enjoyed the historic elements that were part of the story and I cannot wait for the next book!