Seeds of the Pomegranate Book Discussion: Suzanne Samuels and Amy Catania
About
Novelist Suzanne Uttaro Samuels, author of Seeds of the Pomegranate, and Amy Catania, Executive Director of Historic Saranac Lake, will have a conversation exploring how tuberculosis reshaped gender roles, displaced families, and generated both confinement and unexpected agency, especially for women navigating systems of power and illness. Together, they’ll uncover the historical silences and living echoes of TB, asking: Who was allowed to heal? Who was forgotten? And what stories still need to be told?
Samuels' new book explores a time, at the turn of the 20th century, when tuberculosis was more than a diagnosis. It was a force that transformed lives, landscapes, and the very meaning of health, care, and survival. From immigrant tenements to mountain sanatoriums like those in Saranac Lake, TB created a world where breath became precious, rest became radical, and silence often held untold stories.