Roots of Life combines a sweeping historical epic with a hunt for a wonder drug lost for over a century. From Boston Harbor in 1838, to the Amazon, and Civil War battlefields the adventures and romances, victories and defeats of a brilliant southern surgeon unfold. The auction of a Civil War era chest leads a young man on an adventure of a lifetime as he follows the surgeon's trail to find a medicine that could change the world. At every step he is met with intrigue and deception. This novel marries fiction with the actual historic events of a turbulent time.