'The Winter Sisters' Digs Into Southern Folklore And Antebellum Medicine

The Winter Sisters is a historical fiction novel set in Lawrenceville, Georgia in 1822. When a self-righteous doctor arrives in the tiny, backwater town eager to treat what he believes could be an impending rabies epidemic, he’s shocked to discover citizens favoring folk remedies over the methods he believes cures disease – namely bloodletting, amputations, and copious amounts of ether. Westover’s second novel is a cinematic tale weaving deeply-researched historical facts on early 19th century medicine and language, alongside richly imagined fantasies of Southern folklore come to life. He joined On Second Thought to talk about how he finds those stories.