Il morbo di San Francesco

by Zach Hughes, Beata della Frattina (translator)

San Francesco Saverio, missionario gesuita, morì in Cina nel 1551. I suoi compagni lo seppellirono alla meglio nella calce viva, ma quando tornarono tre mesi dopo per riportare in India le ossa, trovarono il corpo in perfetto stato di conservazione. Riesumata ed esaminata in numerose occasioni (l'ultima volta nel 1975), la salma non svelò mai il segreto della misteriosa, o miracolosa mummificazione. A questo celebre santo sembrano votarsi gli scienziati, quando decidono di dare il suo nome a un'epidemia che dalle isole del Pacifico comincia a muoversi verso il continente americano, l'Australia, il mondo intero. Nulla di simile è mai stato visto: prima casi isolati, poi intere famiglie, poi villaggi, comunità, quartieri urbani sono colpiti dalla terribile piaga. Da dove viene? Chi la diffonde? E, soprattutto, che cosa può fermarla? Una specie di tragica corsa a cronometro si scatena tra gli uomini di governo, i militari, gli specialisti sanitari da un lato, e dall'altro un piccolo, comunissimo, invisibile insetto alato.

Copertina di Karel Thole

190 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Zach Hughes is a pseudonym of American writer Hugh Zachary.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book at a friends-of-the-library sale table, a very nifty place to sometimes discover strange or obscure titles. (I was on vacation in Elgin, Illinois, and had finished the books I'd packed from home to read.) I was perusing a stack of paperbacks and saw one with a bright pink cover that featured a young lady being molested by a giant mosquito, much in the spirit of some of the covers of Fantastic Stories magazine of the 1950s. It had been published in May of 1976, while I was getting ready to leave high school, and I had never heard of it before. It was not published as science fiction; the spine just says "novel." Anyway, I grabbed it up, thinking it was going to be classically terrible, like the movies MST3K used to pan. I was a little startled to find that it's not that bad. There are no giant mosquitoes in the book, just tiny normal sized ones that carry a disease, and none of the mosquitoes exhibit any interest in cross-species romance. It's an interesting medical thriller, much in the tone of Michael Crichton's early work. Two sets of characters have names that are so similar that it's difficult to keep them apart, and some of the humor is just a bit too dry, but overall I was pleasantly surprised. The scientists do good science and the world is saved by (spoiler warning) radiation. Also, as was the norm of the day, this book that discusses good health and medical practice has glossy and colorful cigarette advertisements bound in the middle.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like one of the other 12 people that read this book, I too picked it up at a used book sale in Illinois (at the Newberry Library to be exact). I love 70s sci-fi and this one didn't disappoint, complete with 1970s sexism and unnecessary romance. I did find it interesting that this book talked about deep sea floor excavation - something I became aware of only recently. The writing isn't as good as Michael Crichton but the idea is similar.

[Scott Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good scientific disaster novel in the style of the Andromeda strain.

Bit slow at the beginning but picks up pretty quickly

Very plausible

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tra tutti i romanzi di Zachary questo è senza dubbio il migliore.
La trama è ben costruita, la biologia precisa e attendibile, l'impianto nucleare ottimamante presentato. L'ispirazione è un fatto storico, debolmente richiamato in questo interessante e per certi versi attuale romanzo di fantascienza.