{"product_id":"the-kissing-bug-isbn-9781951142520","title":"The Kissing Bug","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the PEN\/Jean Stein Book Award\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNational Book Foundation Science + Literature Selection\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinalist for New American Voices Award and Lammy Award for Bisexual Nonfiction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eTIME\u003c\/i\u003e, NPR, Chicago Public Library, Science for the People, WYNC, WBUR Radio Boston, and The Stacks Podcast Best Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLonglisted for the PEN Open Book Award \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs heard on\u003ci\u003e Fresh Air\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrowing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, Daisy Hernández believed that her aunt had become deathly ill from eating an apple. No one in her family, in either the United States or Colombia, spoke of infectious diseases. Even into her thirties, she only knew that her aunt had died of Chagas, a rare and devastating illness that affects the heart and digestive system. But as Hernández dug deeper, she discovered that Chagas—or the kissing bug disease—is more prevalent in the United States than the Zika virus. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter her aunt’s death, Hernández began searching for answers. Crisscrossing the country, she interviewed patients, doctors, epidemiologists, and even veterinarians with the Department of Defense. She learned that in the United States more than three hundred thousand people in the Latinx community have Chagas, and that outside of Latin America, this is the only country with the native insects—the “kissing bugs”—that carry the Chagas parasite.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrough unsparing, gripping, and humane portraits, Hernández chronicles a story vast in scope and urgent in its implications, exposing how poverty, racism, and public policies have conspired to keep this disease hidden. A riveting and nuanced investigation into racial politics and for-profit healthcare in the United States, \u003ci\u003eThe Kissing Bug\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the intimate history of a marginalized disease and connects us to the lives at the center of it all.\"Lyrical, unflinching. . . . Hernández expertly skates the line between memoir and science tome, showing the personal effects of a disease perpetuated by a cascade of systemic failures\".—\u003cb\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A necessary read for anyone concerned about health crises across the world.\"—\u003cb\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Part memoir, part investigative thriller. . . . Her book shines a light on [a] neglected harm.\"—T\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ehe San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A common but overlooked parasite killed the author’s aunt, spurring this exposé.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDeftly reported. . . . a nuanced and empathetic look into the intersections of poverty, racism and the U.S. healthcare system.\"—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTIME\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hernández raises damning questions about which infectious diseases get attention and whom we believe to be deserving of care.\"—\u003cb\u003eNPR Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A trenchant work of investigative journalism. . . . weaving in cultural and political analysis, extensive research, and personal history as she chases down answers about her aunt’s tragic death from an underreported disease known as Chagas.\"—\u003cb\u003eBuzzfeed\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Visceral. . . . [Hernández] weaves storytelling, science and policy with striking results.\"—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"She movingly profiles individual patients and. . . . the divergent fates experienced by [illness] sufferers of differing incomes, origins, and ethnicities.\"—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This vivid, multidimensional account brings an ongoing medical injustice to light.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Uncovers a story about the intersection of public health and discrimination, and a disease that will become even more virulent as climate change stretches the kissing bug habitat further north.\"—\u003cb\u003eChicago Public Library\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Raises questions on why a disease that kills tens of thousands a year is not more of a focus.\"—\u003cb\u003eNBC News\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Compelling and impressive. . . . Hernández's lucid writing provides a paradigm for how to begin addressing the inequities baked into medicine.\"—\u003cb\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A deeply personal, unsparing analysis of how neglected diseases disproportionately affect marginalized peoples in the world’s richest country—and why they need not.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Blending family and medical history, this account is especially relevant in an era of pandemics.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A riveting investigation of a rare infectious disease, racial politics and for-profit healthcare.\"—\u003cb\u003eBook Public\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Traces the effects of Chagas on minority communities, revealing how poverty, racism, and public policy have intersected to disrupt adequate healthcare interventions.\"—\u003cb\u003eALTA\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The book is propulsive, fascinating, and tragic in equal parts, and in both style and substance it reminds us that the cold hard facts of medical science are never separate from humanity, or from our prejudices, or from our most intimate stories.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUndark Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An expansive account of poverty, race, and who we consider worthy of help as it relates to location-based medical ailments.\"—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eBitch Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Engaging and dynamic. . . . A reader walks away from \u003ci\u003eThe Kissing Bug\u003c\/i\u003e with more knowledge and empathy than they had before and a sense that something must be done to save lives.\" —\u003cb\u003eSouthern Review of Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Powerful.\"—\u003cb\u003eThe Lancet\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Fascinating.\"—\u003cb\u003eReading Women\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This nuanced and timely take exposes a disease that silently harms hundreds of thousands, it also serves as a prescription for change in our public policies and health care system.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDiscover Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Trace[s] some of the most pressing questions about race and the institutions that purport to save lives in the United States, all of it held together by Hernandez’s complicated love for her once-vibrant aunt.\"—\u003cb\u003eJezebel\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Through interviews with patients, doctors, and epidemiologists, Hernández weaves a narrative of the racial politics that overshadow modern healthcare.\"—\u003cb\u003eINSIDER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A lyrical hybrid of memoir and science reporting.\"—\u003cb\u003eLEAPS.ORG\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Engrossing.\"—\u003cb\u003eBookmarks\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The engrossing account of a family medical mystery that led to a compassionate investigation of an underattended disease.\"—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eForeword Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hernández displays impressive storytelling skills in this masterfully researched volume.\"—\u003cb\u003eBook Page\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hernández writes to the heart of the story with immense tenderness, compassion, and intelligence. A riveting read.\"—\u003cb\u003eAngie Cruz, author of \u003ci\u003eDominicana\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With \u003ci\u003eThe Kissing Bug\u003c\/i\u003e, Daisy Hernández takes her place alongside great science writers like Rebecca Skloot and Mary Roach, immersing herself in the deeply personal subject of a deadly insect-borne disease that haunted her own family. It’s a tender and compelling personal saga, an incisive work of investigative journalism, and an absolutely essential perspective on global migration, poverty, and pandemics.\" —\u003cb\u003eAmy Stewart, author of\u003ci\u003e Wicked Bugs\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"The Kissing Bug\u003c\/i\u003e is a deft mix of family archaeology, parasite detective story, and American reckoning. A much-needed addition to the canon.\"—\u003cb\u003eDanielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of \u003ci\u003eWhen We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An engaging, eye-opening read for anyone looking to learn more about the human suffering caused by the collision of a parasite and years of neglect by the United States’ medical system.\"—\u003cb\u003eKris Newby, author of\u003ci\u003e Bitten\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eDaisy Hernández\u003c\/b\u003e is a former reporter for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e and has been writing about the intersections of race, immigration, class, and sexuality for almost two decades. She has written for \u003ci\u003eNational Geographic\u003c\/i\u003e, NPR’s \u003ci\u003eAll Things Considered\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCode Switch\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eGuernica\u003c\/i\u003e, and she’s the former editor of \u003ci\u003eColorlines\u003c\/i\u003e, a newsmagazine on race and politics. Hernández is the author of the award-winning memoir \u003ci\u003eA Cup of Water Under My Bed\u003c\/i\u003e and co-editor of \u003ci\u003eColonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism\u003c\/i\u003e. She is an associate professor at Miami University in Ohio.","brand":"Tin House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233691414757,"sku":"NP9781951142520","price":27.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781951142520.jpg?v=1767740064","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-kissing-bug-isbn-9781951142520","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}