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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780743233002 |
Powells.com Staff Pick
A fascinating work of history about a cruel response to a misunderstood disease, The Colony vividly recounts the saga of the leprosy colony on Molokai and the community once forcibly interred there. Tayman crafts a gripping, and at times horrifying, story about the people once consigned to the colony to die, their cruel overseers, the kindhearted dedicated to helping the internees, and the famous who came to visit this once world renown colony.
Recommended by Michal, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
In 1866, twelve men and women and one small child were forced aboard a leaky schooner and cast away to a natural prison on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Two weeks later, a dozen others were exiled, and then forty more, and then a hundred more. Tracked by bounty hunters and torn screaming from their families, the luckless were loaded into shipboard cattle stalls and abandoned in a lawless place where brutality held sway. Many did not have leprosy, and most of those who did were not contagious, yet all were caught in a shared nightmare. The colony had little food, little medicine, and very little hope. Exile continued for more than a century, the longest and deadliest instance of medical segregation in American history. Nearly nine thousand people were banished to the colony, trapped by pounding surf and armed guards and the highest sea cliffs in the world. Twenty-eight live there still.
John Tayman tells the fantastic saga of this horrible and hopeful place — at one time the most famous community in the world — and of the individuals involved. From the very first exile — a gentle part-time lawyer trapped in an unjust ordeal beyond his imagination — to the last remaining residents, the narrative is peopled by presidents and kings, cruel lawmen and pioneering doctors, and brave souls who literally gave their lives to help. A stunning cast includes the martyred Father Damien, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt, John Wayne, and more. The result is a searing tale of survival and bravery, and a testament to the power of faith, compassion, and heroism.
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What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
-
mazeno, November 17, 2006 (view all comments by mazeno)
it's almost fiction tends to be a real story ( i really need to have this book ).
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medtary, August 11, 2006 (view all comments by medtary)
Tayman, John
I would have never believed I would more than skim this book when I began it; what a surprise! It was like the most incredible miniseries imaginable. Incredible stories
(true) of heroism and cruelty. Larger than life characters. The author has a way of making you want to keep turning pages. Best book I've read in a long time.
View all 2 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780743233002
- Subtitle:
- The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai
- Author:
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Scribner
- Subject:
- History
- Subject:
- United States - General
- Subject:
- Sociology - General
- Subject:
- Diseases
- Subject:
- Infectious Diseases
- Subject:
- Forensic Medicine
- Subject:
- Leprosy
- Subject:
- General History
- Subject:
- United States - State & Local - West
- Copyright:
- 2006
- Publication Date:
- January 2006
- Binding:
- Hardback
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 432
- Dimensions:
- 8.70x5.92x1.27 in. 1.43 lbs.
