THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Best Books of the Year, Guardian
The poignant story of the 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: mankind''s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. The war''s new weaponry, from tanks to shrapnel, enabled slaughter on an industrial scale, and given the nature of trench warfare, thousands of soldiers sustained facial injuries. Medical advances meant that more survived their wounds than ever before, yet disfigured soldiers did not receive the hero''s welcome they deserved.
In The Facemaker, award-winning historian Lindsey Fitzharris tells the astonishing story of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to restoring the faces - and the identities - of
