Bookshelf
| can't find it |

| browse books |
books
 

| book details |

Outcast: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World

By (author) Oliver Basciano

| on special |

normal price: R 703.95

Price: R 667.95


| book description |

A singular, compassionate history of humanity, told through the lens of a misunderstood disease. 'Superb.' TELEGRAPH 'Fascinating.' SPECTATOR 'Shocking, moving and sensitive.' TLS 'Uplifting.' THE TIMES 'Remarkable.' LITERARY REVIEW WINNER OF THE 2023 RSL GILES ST AUBYN AWARD The story of leprosy is the story of humanity. It is a story of isolation and exclusion, of resilience and resistance, one which has permeated global cultures in myriad ways for thousands of years, dividing the world into the 'clean' and the 'unclean'. Oliver Basciano's journey to demystify leprosy takes him from the Romanian border, the hinterlands of Brazil and the fringes of Siberia to the Japanese archipelago, Robben Island and the northern provinces of Mozambique. It reveals the image of medieval leprosy to be a nineteenth-century myth invented to justify gross mistreatment of patients, a blueprint used for further state-sanctioned stigma: colonialism and racism, religious and economic exploitation. Basciano meets those living with leprosy today, those exiled to various leprosaria around the world and forced to find homes away from home; he hears stories of community and perseverance in the face of grave circumstances, of lives bound to each other through shared experience and a refusal to be cast aside. A work of outstanding empathy, Outcast shines new light on the human condition, asking: does a society's sense of itself always rely on ostracisation? 'Remarkable . . . grippingly and humanely recounted.' PHILIPPE SANDS 'It is impossible not to be moved by the lives unfolding in these pages, impossible not to be left transformed and enlightened. ' LEILA ABOULELA

| product details |



Normally shipped | Available from overseas. Usually dispatched in 14 days
Publisher | Faber & Faber
Published date | 19 Jun 2025
Language |
Format | Hardback
Pages | 320
Dimensions | 234 x 153 x 0mm (L x W x H)
Weight | 0g
ISBN | 978-0-5713-8430-3
Readership Age |
BISAC | history / world


| other options |


| your trolley |

To view the items in your trolley please sign in.

| sign in |

| specials |

The Colonialist: The Vision of Cecil Rhodes

William Kelleher Storey
Paperback / softback
528 pages
was: R 425.95
now: R 382.95
Usually dispatched in 6-12 days

This first comprehensive biography of Cecil Rhodes in a generation illuminates Rhodes’s vision for the expansion of imperialism in southern Africa, connecting politics and industry to internal development, and examines how this fueled a lasting, white-dominated colonial society.

Survive the AI Apocalypse: A guide for solutionists

Bronwyn Williams
Paperback / softback
232 pages
was: R 340.95
now: R 306.95
Stock is usually dispatched in 6-12 days from date of order

Look around you is anything real or normal any more? News, images and videos created by AI are everywhere.

The Coming Wave: AI, Power and Our Future

Mustafa Suleyman
Paperback / softback
352 pages
was: R 295.95
now: R 265.95
Stock is usually dispatched in 6-12 days from date of order


The Memory Collectors: A Novel

Dete Meserve
Paperback / softback
320 pages


Enquiries only