Greedy and impatient, tuberculosis, the nineteenth-century plague, relentlessly devoured its victims. With its bone-shivering fevers, delirium, and blood-engorged lungs, the “red death” indiscriminately killed thousands, leaving shattered and defeated families its wake.
Set in the majestic, untamed Adirondack Mountains of New York more than a century ago, an extraordinary story unfolds about the little-known town of Saranac Lake. The town is home to a man with tuberculosis, also known as consumption. It is here that he, Doctor Edward Livingston Trudeau, finds a hopeful cure for the disease that has destroyed so many lives.
While Trudeau’s patients vary in age, class, and race, they have one thing in common; all choose to embrace life, even in the face of death.
Christine has already lost two children to the dreaded plague. When her daughter, Collette, contracts the disease, she is determined to keep her alive. Venturing into unknown territory, Christine risks her health and marriage to help her daughter seek a cure.
When Lena, a factory worker and mother of three, begins coughing up blood, she faces a decision no mother wants to make. She either stays with her family and risks death, or leaves her loved ones while she goes off in hope of a cure.
Big Joe, once a strongman for a traveling circus, seeks a quiet place to live out his final days in hiding. A hunted man, Joe is terrified to learn he will be housed with the very people who could identify him.
Little Amy, a six-year-old child, must care for her family of seven, all afflicted with different forms of the disease. Once Amy is diagnosed with a very rare form, she is placed under Dr. Trudeau’s care. Alone and afraid, Amy faces her fears and dreams of a future.
With a cast of characters so vivid and remarkable, One Thousand Porches is a heart-warming, engaging story that will instill hope and faith in even the most pessimistic reader.
