- Registration is required for this event.
- Registration will open on June 16, 2026 @ 5:30pm.
- A library card is not required.
Program Description
Event Details
Please pick up a copy of the book at the hosting branch.
Copies are available starting one month prior to the discussion, while supplies last.
Based on the true story of America’s only leper colony, The Second Life of Mirielle West brings vividly to life the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were stripped of their civil rights, branded as lepers, and forcibly quarantined throughout the entire 20th century.
For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease.
At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate.
Find the ebook or eaudiobook at stchlibrary.org
Disclaimer(s)
Accommodations
If you need accommodations for this program, please contact the Library as soon as you are able.
Register Everyone
Please register each person attending the program or event regardless of age.
Sponsored by Friends
This event was generously sponsored by the Friends of the Library.