Clinical Investigations

~ Stillborn, by Rohini Nilekani ~

This medical thriller set in Bangalore has a plot involving vaccine development, clinical trials and medical research. Being tangentially involved in those fields, and having connections to Bangalore, I picked it up immediately. The biotechnical part of the plot is quite plausible, which is unusual for biomed potboilers. (Jurassic Park, for example, was great fun but scientifically implausible). The vaccine in question is a contraceptive, which has obvious implications for population increase, and the story brings out some of the complications of clinical trials in developing countries.

For example: what does ‘informed consent’ mean when the vaccine is being tested on illiterate villagers? They may put their thumbprint on the consent form, but has anyone really explained the risks to them? What is the responsibility of those conducting the trials if something goes wrong?

Local healthcare provider administering a vaccine. (Public domain image)

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The amateur detective in this case is a young woman journalist working for a Deccan-Herald-like paper in Bangalore. She has a sister with a genetic disease, so is particularly interested in health issues. There is a suitable love interest or two. The setting moves from various offices to social events to cybercafes to tribal villages to Goa to the US as she energetically follows the trail of suspicion. There are frequent descriptions of food, and I was inspired to take my family to eat idli-dosa after I finished the book 🙂

Characters in this novel do tend to pour out the intimate details of their work with an astonishing lack of discretion, but without this few potboilers would get anywhere.

I’m repeating myself, but really, the technical details are excellently done. The physiology and molecular biology relating to the vaccine are accurate, and the hypothesis is realistic. At one point I was expecting a big-bad-multinational-biopiracy plot to take over the story, but the author pleasantly surprised me.

It has always perplexed me that after this excellent debut in 1998, Nilekani has never published another book.

`Stillborn’, by Rohini Nilekani. Penguin, Canada, 1998

This review was first published on the South Asian Women’s NETwork (SAWNET)