Synopses & Reviews
With scalpel-sharp prose and an unflinching gaze, the deeply human stories in Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures mark the arrival of a powerful new voice in fiction. Dr. Vincent Lam balances black humor with profound moral dilemmas in this emotionally compelling and matter-of-fact portrait of todays medical profession.
Lam brings to vivid and convincing life the disparate but interdependent worlds of school and home, heartbreaking young love, and life-altering fear as he introduces us to Fitz, Ming, Chen, and Sri, four young and ambitious medical school students and doctors. Together they test the boundaries of intimacy as they study for their exams, face tests of conscience as they split open cadavers, confront people who assault their patients, and treat schizophrenics with pathologies similar to their own.
Riveting and precise, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures looks with rigorous honesty at the lives of doctors and their patients and illuminates a deeper understanding of the challenges and temptations that surge around us all.
Synopsis
Through the eyes of Fitz, Ming, Chen, and Sri, Vincent Lam finds conflict - and humanity - in the most surprising moments. Together these doctors test the boundaries of intimacy as they cope with exam pressure, weigh moral dilemmas as they dissect cadavers, confront police who assault their patients, and treat schizophrenics with pathologies similar to their own.Winner of the 2006 Giller Prize for fiction - the only debut work ever to have won the prestigious literary prize - Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures looks with rigorous honesty at the lives of doctors and their patients and illuminates a deeper understanding of the fears, choices, and temptations that face us all.?Vincent Lam's book is amazing, beautiful, and painful. I cannot believe that a writer can emerge, so fully-formed and incisive, with his first book. This guy is a star.? - Sherman Alexie, bestselling author of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Flight