Healer

July 19, 2010
Claire Boehning faces a bleak future when her privileged life ends abruptly in Cassella's second novel (after Oxygen). Addison, her biochemist husband, created a lucrative drug that secured the family's fortunes, but when tests on a new drug go awry and Addison's backing disappears, he loses everything. After the couple is forced to move from Seattle with daughter Jory, 14, to live in a rural, ramshackle house originally bought as a fixer-upper project when money was not an issue, Addison travels in search of new investors. Claire, meanwhile, searches for a position as a doctor, a profession she left after Jory's birth. But with her lack of experience and board certification, she finds few opportunities until she lands a job at a nonprofit clinic that serves poor, uninsured migrant workers. There Claire meets Miguela Ruiz, a Nicaraguan native with a mysterious background, and as the Boehnings struggle to reclaim some piece of their past life, Ruiz affects them in unexpected ways. Cassella (a real-life doctor) takes a hard look at a faulty health-care system to illustrate the power of money and class in this timely and multifaceted novel.

A free clinic for migrant workers is at the center of this gripping story, ably read by Alyssa Bresnahan. Dr. Claire, struggling to hold her family together, takes a job at the clinic, and soon the problems of her clients threaten to dwarf her own. Listeners hear the anguish of Miguela, who has lost her daughter, and the reluctance of those who are sick but can't afford to miss work, as well as the tensions between Claire, her unemployed husband, and her 14-year-old daughter. Spanish speakers struggling with English and vice versa ring true, as do the descriptions of the process involved in bringing a drug to market. Listeners will be hoping for a happy ending, with healing on many levels. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine