Fever by Mary Beth Keane

Fever by Mary Beth Keane

From Mary Beth Keane, the bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes, comes a historical novel set in early-20th-century New York City about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," who becomes, "in Keane's assured hands...a sympathetic, complex, and even inspiring character" (O, The Oprah Magazine).

On the eve of the 20th century, Mary Mallon emigrated from Ireland at age fifteen to make her way in New York City. Brave, headstrong, and dreaming of being a cook, she fought to climb up from the lowest rung of the domestic-service ladder. Canny and enterprising, she worked her way to the kitchen and discovered in herself the true talent of a chef. Sought after by New York aristocracy, and with an independence rare for a woman of the time, she seemed to have achieved the life she'd aimed for when she arrived in Castle Garden. Amid a growing public health panic, a determined "medical engineer" noticed that she left a trail of disease wherever she cooked and identified her as an "asymptomatic carrier" of Typhoid Fever. With this seemingly preposterous theory, he made Mallon a hunted woman.

The Department of Health sent Mallon to North Brother Island, where she was quarantined in isolation from 1907 to 1910, then released under the condition that she never work as a cook again. Yet for Mary--proud of her former status and passionate about cooking--the alternatives were abhorrent. She defied the edict.

Bringing Gilded Age New York City alive--the neighborhoods, the bars, the park carved out of upper Manhattan, the boat traffic, the mansions and sweatshops and emerging skyscrapers--Fever is an ambitious retelling of a forgotten life. In the imagination of Mary Beth Keane, Mary Mallon becomes a fiercely compelling, dramatic, vexing, sympathetic, uncompromising, and unforgettable heroine.

Mary Beth Keane grew up in Rockland County, New York, and was born in New York City to Irish parents. She obtained her MFA in Fiction from the University of Virginia after attending Barnard College. Julia Glass named her to the National Book Foundation's 5 under 35 list in 2011. She and her husband, as well as their two sons, live in Pearl River, New York.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781451693423
ISBN 10	1451693427
Title	Fever
Author	Mary Beth Keane
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Scribner Book Company
Year published	2014-03-18
Number of pages	352
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.