Plague And Cholera

Author: Patrick Deville

Stock information

General Fields

  • : 21.99 AUD
  • : 9780349139531
  • : Little, Brown Book Group
  • : Abacus
  • :
  • : 0.28
  • : March 2015
  • : 198mm X 132mm X 24mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 19.99
  • : May 2015
  • :
  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Patrick Deville
  • : Paperback
  • : 1
  • : 304
  • :
  • :
  • :
  • :
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Barcode 9780349139531
9780349139531

Description

Paris, May 1940. Nazi troops storm the city and at Le Bourget airport, on the last flight out, sits Dr Alexandre Yersin, his gaze politely turned away from his fellow passengers with their jewels sewn into their luggage. He is too old for the combat ahead, and besides he has already saved millions of lives. When he was the brilliant young protege of Louis Pasteur, he focused his exceptional mind on a great medical conundrum: in 1894, on a Hong Kong hospital forecourt, he identified and vaccinated against bubonic plague, later named in his honour Yersinia pestis. Swiss by birth and trained in Germany and France, Yersin is the son of empiricism and endeavour; but he has a romantic hunger for adventure, fuelled by tales of Livingstone and Conrad, and sets sail for Asia. A true traveller of the century, he wishes to comprehend the universe. Medicine, agriculture, the engine of the new automobile, all must be opened up, examined and improved. Ceaselessly curious and courageous, Yersin stands, a lone genius,against a backdrop of world wars, pandemics, colonialism, progress and decadence. He is brought to vivid, thrilling life in Patrick Deville's captivating novel, which was a bestseller and shortlisted for every major literary award in France.

Promotion info

A French publishing sensation, shortlisted for every major literary award and perfect for everyone who loved HHhH.

Reviews

A fascinating novel about one of the undercelebrated heroes of science The Times Cool, clever ... unlike anything I've read for a long time and something genuinely out of the ordinary -- Richard Benson Big Issue