In more recent years a number of highly acclaimed novels have been published as alternate histories, by authors ranging from science fiction bestsellers to Pulitzer Prize-winning literary icons.

With roots in the writings of ancient Rome, alternate history matured into something close to its current form in the essays and novels of the nineteenth century. Alternate history is a genre of fiction which, although connected to the genres of utopian, dystopian and science fiction, has its own rich history and lineage. This book is the first collection of scholarly essays on alternate history in over a decade and features contributions from a mixture of major figures and rising stars in the field of science fiction studies. Suitable for bioethicists, medical anthropologists, health sociologists and body studies scholars, Bodies and Suffering will also be of use on health science courses as essential reading on suffering bodies, mental health and morality and ethics issues. The book draws on theories of affect, embodiment, the phenomenol-ogy of illness and moralities of care, to produce a nuanced understanding of suffering as being located across the assumed borders of time, space, bodies, persons and things. Drawing on case studies and empirical research, Bodies and Suffering examines the idea of the suffering body across different cultures and contexts and the experience and treatment of these suffering bodies. It also explores circumstances – personal, political and social – under which that which is perceived as non-moral becomes moral. The book investigates the moral labour and significance invested in actions to care for others, or in failing to do so. The book explores how moral and ethical questions of personal suffering are experienced, contested, negotiated and institutionalised. This book is a critical response to a range of problems – some theoretical, others empirical – that shape questions surrounding the lived experience of suffering.

Magyar kóla by András Dezső