THE PANACEA PROJECT

In this novel, a young woman with a brain tumor who apparently healed herself becomes the subject of a scientific experiment to find a cure for cancer.

Calla Hammond’s life has never been easy—her mother, who took drugs, died when she was only 4 years old, and she never knew her father. Calla grows up in the Texas foster care system and, as a result of her mother’s neglect, is plagued by various developmental delays. She doesn’t speak until she is 6 and has vitiligo, a condition that keeps human affection at bay, a sad past poignantly chronicled by Johnson. Calla eventually ages out of the system and finds part-time work at a library but remains riddled with recurring health problems. One day, while at work, she experiences a seizure, passes out, and suffers a blow to her head. She is diagnosed with a brain tumor and a surgery is scheduled to remove it. But during the operation, the surgeon is unable to find the tumor. Dr. Carson Kraft, a brilliant research physician, believes Calla’s immune system healed the tumor and that studying the patient could ultimately produce a cure for all cancers. With great nuance and lighthearted humor, the author documents Calla’s transformation into a “glorified lab rat” and the ways in which the indefatigable search for a cure threatens to engulf her life. After a kidnapping attempt, she is assigned bodyguard Brandon Foster, who provides her with a rare opportunity for romance. Unfortunately, Johnson sometimes indulges in sentimentality—the book’s conclusion strikes a terribly contrived emotional note. But the story is both inventive and thoughtful and captures the way in which the scientific search for truth and humanitarian relief can take on an inhumane form.

An intelligent and moving tale about the complex intersection of science and morality.