• The Facemaker

  • One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I
  • By: Lindsey Fitzharris
  • Narrated by: Daniel Gillies
  • Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

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The Facemaker  By  cover art

The Facemaker

By: Lindsey Fitzharris
Narrated by: Daniel Gillies
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Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind's military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. The war caused carnage on an industrial scale and the nature of trench warfare meant that thousands sustained facial injuries. In The Facemaker, award-winning historian Lindsey Fitzharris tells the true story of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to restoring the faces of a brutalised generation.

Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, established one of the world's first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of facial differences, Gillies restored not just faces, but identities and spirits.

The Facemaker places Gillies's ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine and art can merge and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Lindsey Fitzharris (P)2022 Penguin Audio

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How beauty came from war

An excellent story of man's creativity and love for those damaged by man's destruction and hate.

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A perfect slice of fascinating history

This is my favorite piece of nonfiction in a long time. Lindsay Fitzharris has created just the right mix of history and science, horror and redemption, and personal stories of real lives forever changed. The narrator gets it just right too. So good.

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