Everything is Tuberculosis
ISBN: 9781529961447
Description
In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year.
Reviewed on 20th June 2026
Not my usual choice of reading matter, but I've been enjoying listening to John Green's various podcasts, so thought it worth a try.
It's a mix of emotion, history, and a tiny bit of science as Green tells the story of Tuberculosis in humanity, entwined with the story of his Sierra Leonean friend Henry's experience with the disease.
The book is structured into well-sized chapters which fit into a short reading episode, and allow for regular breaks to avoid the nature of the content overwhelming the reader. I found that this meant I could read one chapter at a time and intersperse them with reading something much much lighter.
I've learnt a lot from this about tuberculosis, but also global politics and economics. There's a lot to think about and I think it'll be sitting in my mind for a long time to come.