01793nam a2200205   4500000000100000008004100001260002500042653001800067653002700085653001200112653001200124653001100136653002300147100001200170245004400182300001100226050001600237520131200253020002201565       2009                            d  bWilliam MorrowaS.l.10aUnited States10aRegion of the Americas10aleprosy10aHistory10aGlobal10aCarville, Lousiana1 aWhite N00aIn the sanctuary of outcasts : a memoir  a336 p.  a130.9 WHI b3 a<p>Neil White, a journalist and magazine publisher, wanted the best for those he loved—nice cars, beautiful homes, luxurious clothes. He loaned money to family and friends, gave generously to his church, and invested in his community—but his bank account couldn't keep up. Soon White began moving money from one account to another to avoid bouncing checks. His world fell apart when the FBI discovered his scheme and a judge sentenced him to serve eighteen months in a federal prison. But it was no ordinary prison. The beautiful, isolated colony in Carville, Louisiana, was also home to the last people in the continental United States disfigured by leprosy. Hidden away for decades, this small circle of outcasts had forged a tenacious, clandestine community, a fortress to repel the cruelty of the outside world. It is here, in a place rich with history, where the Mississippi River briefly runs north, amid an unlikely mix of leprosy patients, nuns, and criminals, that White's strange and compelling journey begins. He finds a new best friend in Ella Bounds, an eighty-year-old African American double amputee who had contracted leprosy as a child. She and the other secret people, along with a wacky troop of inmates, help White rediscover the value of simplicity, friendship, and gratitude.</p>
  a978-0-06-135160-0