Leprosy. The Story of a Leprosarium

Georgy Ivanovich Shilin (1896–1938) — a Soviet prose writer, participant in World War I. His first book was positively reviewed by Maxim Gorky, and the peak of his creativity took place in the 1920s-30s, after which the author was forgotten for a long time.

The most famous novel by Georgy Shilin is "Leprosy." A personal story compelled the writer to delve into the study of the fight against leprosy, this terrible and mythologized disease: upon returning to his hometown for a while, Shilin wanted to visit an old friend, only to learn that he was ill and placed in a leprosarium. Thus, the writer found himself in the "sick yard" for the first time and spent several days among the lepers. Subsequently, Shilin visited leprosariums in various cities of the USSR multiple times, and for his novel, he studied available medical literature, consulted with prominent specialists, and even participated in the work of the congress of leprologists.
In addition to a serious scientific foundation, the novel stands out with bright, vivid characters: the patients, whose social lives have been cut off, although physically they continue to exist, often without hope of ever leaving the leprosarium; the doctors, selflessly devoted to science and their work, refusing to back down before one of the oldest known diseases.