The Facemaker
One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I
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A New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize | Named a best book of the year by The Guardian "Enthralling. Harrowing. Heartbreaking. And utterly redemptive. Lindsey Fitzharris hit this one out of the park." —Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile Lindsey Fitzharris, the award-winning author of The Butchering Art, presents the compelling, true story of a visionary surgeon who rebuilt the faces of the First World War’s injured heroes, and in the process ushered in the modern era of plastic surgery. From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: humankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed. The First World War claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded and disfigured. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. The Facemaker tells the extraordinary story of such an individual: the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to reconstructing the burned and broken faces of the injured soldiers under his care. Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, became interested in the nascent field of plastic surgery after encountering the human wreckage on the front. Returning to Britain, he established one of the world’s first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. There, Gillies assembled a unique group of practitioners whose task was to rebuild what had been torn apart, to re-create what had been destroyed. 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 disfigurement, Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded but also their 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 can be an art, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.
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Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ebook in exchange for a review.
This book was so good! I don't know when I first heard of Harold Gillies, sometime after I watched Boardwalk Empire and liked Jack Huston's character - the character has a mask to cover his facial damage and I wanted to know more, which led me to the work that Harold Gillies did.
Gillies pioneered modern plastic surgery and realized the importance of working with other sorts of people. His teams included surgeons, dentists, artists, and whoever else had a needed skill. This book focuses on the men and women who worked with Gillies - the medical techniques they created or perfected, the artistic records of procedures, the prosthetics that were created - and the patients who needed his help.
This was fascinating and read easily. There were times it felt a little repetitive as most chapters followed the same format, but the information was all really interesting and presented well.
I've been meaning to read Lindsey Fitzharris's other book, The Butchering Art, so when this came up on NetGalley I was interested. I'm so glad I read this and will need to bump her other book up my tbr list.
(I do wish the ebook included the pictures that Fitzharris mentions, as I think seeing the work and people and places mentioned would be helpful.)
The mechanisation of battle during World War 1, lead to both more and worse injuries than had been seen before.
Facial injuries damaged both the body and the psyche, with men ostracised for being too disturbing to look at.
The possibility of successful reconstructive surgery attracted a disparate group of professionals, including ENT surgeons, general surgeons and dentists.
This book is a fascinating account of both the patients and the healthcare professionals.
The focus is on Harold Gillies and his pioneering work in establishing the beginnings of modern plastic surgery.
There are many other honourable mentions of international contributors to the work. Many of whom were self funded.
With each patient comes a vignette of the grim circumstances surrounding their injuries, together with pretty gory clinical details.
A very interesting read, which makes one very grateful for modern anaesthesia, asepsis and analgesia.
I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. All views expressed are my own.
