The Second Life of Mirielle WestThe Second Life of Mirielle West

Exiled to rural Louisiana in the 1920s after being diagnosed with leprosy, socialite Mirielle, unable to accept her new reality, stays away from other residents until she finds both community and purpose and must choose to stay or return to a life she isn't sure she has anymore.
For Mirielle West, a 1920's socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home in Carville is an unimaginable fall from the star-studded parties of Hollywood's Golden Age. Diagnosed by leprosy, at first she hopes her exile will be brief. But those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients: the disease has no cure. Mirielle must find community and purpose while struggling to redefine her self-worth, despite the isolation, stigma, experimental treatments, and disparate community. -- adapted from back cover