Text: Tomek Żarnecki
Illustrations: Gosia Kulik
9+
96 pages
Hardcover
25,5 x 25,5 cm
(Kocur Bury)
Rights sold: Russia, China, Spain (Spanish, Catalan), Korea
The illustrator Gosia Kulik was selected for the 2020 Bologna Illustrators Exhibition
Portraits of diseases that left their mark on the fate of the world and human history.
This brilliantly illustrated book is about fourteen viral and bacterial diseases, including flu, measles, plague, ebola, cholera, leprosy, smallpox, AIDS, malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, polio, syphilis and yellow fever.
While most of them have disappeared into the darkness of the past, we are still combating a few, some pose the threat of return.
“THE SICK STORIES” include a description of the characteristic symptoms of each disease, a historical outline, information on the treatment and prevention. However, the book does not pretend to be an encyclopaedia of diseases or a classic guide.
Rather, it is an invitation to travel back in time, to delve into the “sick stories” of centuries ago, stories of epidemics, pandemics and human courage to combat viruses and bacteria in often lethal clashes.
The position is targeted at older children and teenagers; certainly also can interest adults. The authors took care not only of the substantive value of the book but also of its high artistic level. Intriguing graphics and expressive, suggestive drawings by Gosia Kulik are eye-catching, directing attention to details, and sometimes blunt and fascinating.
The authors present a number of figures from the world of science, culture and politics, such as Dimitri Mendeleev, Louise Bourbon, Baldwin IV the Leper and Alexander Selkirk (the prototype of Robinson Crusoe).
As a result, they are not only misty figures from the distant past but also people of flesh and blood who, through their own fault or for reasons beyond their control, found themselves entangled in the course of the history of diseases.
The book surprises, releases curiosity and all this from a modern perspective, with a hint of bitter humour and reflection from a distance.
