An Elegant Defense

Matt Richtel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, explains the immune system through four lives: a terminal cancer patient who returns from the brink, an HIV patient regarded as a medical marvel, and two women whose bodies have turned on them through autoimmune disease. Building on his reporting on immunotherapy, he draws on current science and interviews with leading researchers to show how the body fights viruses, bacteria, tumors and parasites, and how the same system can attack its own organs. The account runs from the Black Plague through twentieth-century vaccines and antibiotics to today's immunology laboratories. Richtel also warns that antibacterial soaps and immune boosters undermine natural defenses and help produce drug-resistant microbes.

Bill Gates, recommending it for summer reading in 2021, said the patients' stories make for a very interesting look at the science of immunity.