Everything Is Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis has been entwined with hu­manity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John be­came fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequi­ties that allow this curable, preventable infec­tious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year.

In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world―and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.

Review

Earnest and empathetic ― New York Times

Everything Is Tuberculosis doesn’t so much tell you the story of tuberculosis, as much as it gently holds your hand and parts the curtains into one of the darkest, most bizarre, and frustrating series of decisions in world history with the other... A quintessential John Green book: one that grapples with the issue of mortality and our conflicting desires to both help and hurt one another, all within the backdrop of the coming of age of a young man ― Slate

Green uses the stories of real people to turn overwhelming problems into something personal and understandable. ― The Associated Press

This highly readable call to action could not be more timely ― Kirkus, starred review

Henry’s story is hopeful and heartbreaking; readers will be rooting for him and his family the whole way through ― SLJ, starred review

Green writes expertly of the illness’s history, causes (malnutrition, poverty, bad sanitation, etc.), and cure… Insightful and extremely well and clearly written, Everything Is Tuberculosis makes what might be inaccessible accessible ― Booklist, starred review

In these challenging times, the global health community is fortunate to count on Green and his inspiring advocacy ― Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD, The Lancet

A story of hope and tragedy that feels terribly relevant at a time when the global healthcare system is coming under attack. ― The AV Club

An exceptional combination of memoir, medical history and cultural analysis…. Memorably probes the intersections of medicine and human emotion ― BookPage, starred review

About the Author

John Green is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of books including Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down, and The Anthropocene Reviewed. With his brother, Hank, John has co-created many online video projects, including Vlogbrothers and the educa­tional channel Crash Course. John serves on the board of trustees for the global health non­profit Partners In Health and spoke at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on the Fight to End Tuberculosis.

John lives with his family in Indianapolis. You can visit him online at johngreenbooks.com or join the TB Fighters working to end tubercu­losis at tbfighters.org