Publication

2006-09-12 - Grove Press

Language

English

Word Count

72,000 words, Guess

Page Count

288 pages

Physical Format

Paperback

Identifiers

  • ISBN-100802142788
  • ISBN-139780802142788
  • Better World Books9780802142788
  • Open LibraryOL7875158M

Description

A memoir of a doctor's education in the classroom and on the battlefield. Surgery is the art of cutting people open, yet it is also a symphony of delicate manipulation and subtle chords. No other field of medicine carries so much individual responsibility as that of a surgeon. Growing up in South Africa, Kaplan made his own pilgrimage to a kibbutz in Israel at fifteen, coming of age in a land facing stark moral choices in the wake of the Six-Day War. He eventually landed in Angola, taking charge of a combat-zone hospital, the only surgeon for 160,000 civilians, where he was exposed daily to the horrors of war. He portrays serving as a volunteer surgeon in Baghdad--where he treated civilian casualties amid gunfights for control of hospitals and dealt with gangs of looters stripping pharmacies and militant groups harassing doctors out of operating rooms.--From publisher description.

First Sentence

Life's passage is peaceful only for the fortunate.

Subjects

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