Welcome to the Roaring Twenties where Mirielle West is a self-involved Hollywood socialite. One fateful day, she leaves her children with the nanny to go to a doctor’s appointment about a little burn she has. She couldn’t know life as she knew it just ended. What happens next in The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore takes us to a leper colony in Louisiana. As told through Mirielle’s eyes, it’s a fascinating look at a misunderstood disease and the people who live with it.

In the mid nineteen hundreds, Mirielle is living a wonderful life. Married to a movie star, living in a gorgeous house with two beautiful daughters. Until on a visit to a doctor he discovers a spot on her hand which turns out to be leprosy. Mirielle is whisked off to Carrville in Louisiana to a leper colony. She thinks she will only be there for a few weeks but it doesn’t work out that way.

This is a well written historical novel about a dreadful disease and how people coped with it.

A great story that pulls you in and is so insightful at the same time. I learned so much about how our country treated leprosy, I had no idea! A great book club book to discuss also.