Everything Is Tuberculosis

''Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection'' is a book by American author John Green about tuberculosis, a curable disease usually brought on by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' that is the leading cause of death from an infectious disease. The book argues that the disease is not primarily caused by the bacteria anymore but by human choices. It was published on March 18, 2025 and is Green's second nonfiction book. The book was well received and became a ''New York Times'' number one bestseller in nonfiction.

Background

John Green is an American young adult novelist who wrote the 2012 bestseller ''The Fault in Our Stars,'' which was later adapted into a 2014 film. He also hosts the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers which he started with his brother, Hank Green, in 2007. From that YouTube channel started the annual Project for Awesome charity event also in 2007, which supports Partners In Health, among other charities. Following his last novel ''Turtles All the Way Down'' in 2017, Green described himself as "retired" from young adult fiction. He published a book of essays, ''The Anthropocene Reviewed'', in 2021, which acted as a loose memoir.

Green became interested in tuberculosis on a visit to Sierra Leone with Partners In Health in 2019, where he became aware that it was not "a problem of the past" but an ongoing global issue despite being curable. He spent several years engaging with experts and learning about the disease, speaking about it before the United Nations in 2023. That year, he also rallied his audience to petition Johnson & Johnson and Cepheid to ease access to the tuberculosis treatment bedaquiline and rapid diagnostic testing for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, respectively, which both companies did.

Summary and release

Green described the book as "a history of human responses to tuberculosis intertwined with a contemporary story of one person's experience", that person being Henry, a young tuberculosis patient Green met in 2019 in Sierra Leone who shares his son's name. He announced the book's title, ''Everything Is Tuberculosis'', on October 22, 2024. The cover was designed by Grace Han, who also designed the cover for ''The Anthropocene Reviewed''.

It was officially released on March 18, 2025, through Crash Course Books, a new imprint of Penguin Young Readers that is an extension of the educational YouTube series '' Crash Course''. The first run was announced to be 500,000 copies, of which Green signed 100,000. Green also narrated the audiobook version. Green went on a book tour in support of the book's release, starting in of Indianapolis, where he lives.

Reception

The book was well received and sold well. ''Kirkus Reviews'' gave the book a starred review, saying, "This highly readable call to action could not be more timely." ''Booklist'' and ''School Library Journal'' also gave the book starred reviews. ''AP News'' reviewed the book, calling it "reflective and earnest ..Little nuggets of personalization consistently bring us back to our shared humanity." In an overall positive review, ''The A.V. Club'' stated that "while Green provides a great general analysis of why the disease tests our very humanity, it's easy to be left wanting more." ''Library Journal'' called the book, "An interesting but scattered view of uberculosis" Rebecca Robbins writing for ''The New York Times'' stated that while "Green does an admirable job introducing readers to a disease they would otherwise be unlikely to learn about," she thought he was "frustratingly vague in assigning blame for the persistence of tuberculosis."

The book was a ''New York Times'' number-one bestseller in nonfiction for multiple weeks, remaining on the list for sixteen weeks .

References

External links

John Green Visits the United Nations

2025 non-fiction books
Books by John Green
Books about diseases and disorders
History books about medicine
Tuberculosis

{{John Green