Photos of People Reading

Breakthrough

by Thea Cooper

  • St Martin's Press
  • 2010
  • ISBN: 978-0312648701
  • 306 pages
  • WorldCat
Breakthrough book cover
About the Book

It is 1919 and Elizabeth Hughes, the eleven-year-old daughter of America's most-distinguished jurist and politician, Charles Evans Hughes, has been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. It is essentially a death sentence. The only accepted form of treatment – starvation – whittles her down to forty-five pounds skin and bones. Miles away, Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best manage to identify and purify insulin from animal pancreases – a miracle soon marred by scientific jealousy, intense business competition and fistfights. In a race against time and a ravaging disease, Elizabeth becomes one of the first diabetics to receive insulin injections – all while its discoverers and a little known pharmaceutical company struggle to make it available to the rest of the world. Written with authentic detail and suspense, Breakthrough relives the heartwarming true story of the discovery of insulin. ebook icon Audio book icon

Official book website
Thea Cooper photo
About the Author

Thea Cooper is a writer, editor, and teacher. She wrote her first poem in second grade and has been writing ever since. Her specialty is synthesizing complex or esoteric content and identifying an organic narrative structure within bodies of information. Thea has a B.A. in English from Bard College and an M.F.A. in playwriting from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Co-Author

Arthur Ainsberg is a writer and a Wall Street executive who has experienced his own medical challenges having been diagnosed in 1975 at the age of twenty-eight with Hodgkin’s Disease. At the time of his diagnosis, doctors had only recently developed a method of treatment that could cure the disease. His interest in medicine, born from personal experience, combined with his love of history, set him on the path to writing.

Host a Book Discussion

  • Join us for a book discussion Breakthrough social media graphic

    Do you want to share this book with your reading group? The Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) has made it easy to promote and discuss.

    • Discussion Guide PDF
    • Social Media JPG
    • Poster PDF [8.5 x 11]
    • Bookmark PDF
last updated: 12/13/25 17:36