Much more than a “novel bout a leper”, Steve Thayer has presented us with a story of one man's journey through life from his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, to service as a Marine in World War I , to a job teaching school – and on to an unwise relationship with one of his students -- and to his eventual dismissal from his job. Along the way he comes face to face with the accusation that he is a suspected leper, although he exhibits no systems of that fatal disease. Because of the attitude of the times, he is forced to enter one leper colony after another, which caused him to lose contact with his family, friends, and the girl he loved. In those days, lepers were treated more like captives than as patients, although some of them did receive some medical care. Because of his education, his war time experiences, and his intelligence and compassion, this man rebelled in every possible way against the maltreatment of the lepers with whom he was forced to live.

It is not a pretty story, and this reader was appalled to learn of the cruelty with which the colonies were run. This book is an eye-opener, and perhaps the reader learns more than he wants to about leprosy even though its main character shows himself to be cognizant of his past mistakes and compassionate of his fellow members of the leper colonies. While the story is one that calls for anger at the system, it also exhibits a tendency to excuse its cruelty because of the lack of knowledge about the disease during that period of time.

So, the reader will either like the book or put it down after the first couple of chapters, but the content will remain with him/her long afterward. This is a beautiful, terrible novel based on historical fact and, if nothing else, it leaves us with sorrow for the man whose life it reveals, and disgust with the cruel system with which the law contained even those “suspects” who exhibited no symptoms, and the tragic lack of compassion with which they dealt with those who contracted the disease and whose bodies were eventually disintegrated by it. Again, not a pretty story, but certainly an extremely well researched and written one. This author had courage to attempt such a novel and to create it so perfectly. It is a story of how a life can change from the stage of innocence, to ignorance, to joy, to loss, and, finally redemption. I recommend it.

Written by Litera Scripta