This doesn't look a cheery read, does it? But wow, what an incredible book - and it is inspiring.

I heard about it through the author Ann Patchett in her weekly Instagram post of recommended titles. Her enthusiasm, combined with being aware of John Green as an award-winning, bestselling writer for young adults, intrigued me. And I'm so glad I read this book.

John Green tells us that he has become obsessed with tuberculosis - it affects everything in life, he says.

His great-grandfather was a doctor who, when his son became ill, was devastated at not being able to save him. The son died from tuberculosis.

Fast forward and John is visiting Africa where he meets a young man called Henry in a hospital there. Henry is 17 and has tuberculosis. Today there is no reason why Henry should die, but the doctors fear the worst. John seeks not only to prevent this plight for Henry but also to investigate why the prognosis is so bleak when this is a curable disease.

'We know how to live in a world without tuberculosis,' he says, 'but we choose not to live in that world.' In 2023 more people died of TB than died of malaria, typhoid and war combined.

Telling the story of TB through the generations, John describes societal attitudes to death and illness, as well as those of the literary and artistic world - 'consumption was believed to bring the creative powers to new levels, helping artists get in deeper touch with the spirit as their worldly bodies literally shrank away.' 

It was also associated with feminine beauty - pale, thin, rosy cheeks, wide and sunken eyes. Charlotte Bronte wrote 'consumption, I am aware, is a flattering malady'.

But in the industrial revolution when workers were succumbing to the disease due to their living and working conditions, the perception of the disease changed. It was no longer considered an inherited disease which affected the rich, intelligent and privileged. Affecting the poor and marginalised, it became a horror with little investment of time, money or attention given to its eradication.

This is such an interesting, challenging and moving book. It's easy to read through excellent storytelling, but it is also provocative in highlighting that 'health inequalities are caused by poverty, racism, lack of medical care and other social forces...we live in between what we choose and what is chosen for us,' John says.

John Green is known for his hugely successful books for teenagers, including 'Looking for Alaska' and 'The Fault in Our Stars'. Strangely I haven't reviewed any of these but will be looking them out again. This is an amazing book - even if you think it's not for you, give it a try!