Anderson tells the tale of Harriet, Harry, and Barium, who live in South Philadelphia during the Spanish influenza pandemic that swept the globe in 1918. The crowded and often filthy tenement houses of urban neighborhoods and emergency hospitals that sprung up around Philadelphia during the height of the epidemic provide the backdrop as the protagonists come to terms with the loss of their parents to the virus. Many of the characters are fictionalized composites of real-life survivors, whereas others, such as Philadelphia physician Wilmer Krusen and mayor Thomas Smith, are real-life portrayals. Charts and maps of historical data share space with the fictional dialogue and plot twists, and period black-and-white photographs of the sick and dying, masked stretcher-bearers, and exhausted gravediggers punctuate the fast-paced narrative, providing an unflinching look at the horrors of the seemingly unstoppable virus. This typifies the historical novel that walks the fine line between fact and fiction.
–Booklist
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