Life on the Ground Floor - Hardcover

Dr. James Maskalyk

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385665970 ISBN 13: 9780385665971

Publisher: Random House Canada, 2017

Synopsis

In this deeply personal book, humanitarian doctor and activist James Maskalyk, author of the highly acclaimed Six Months in Sudan (Canongate, 2009), draws upon his experience treating patients in the world's emergency rooms. From Toronto to Addis Ababa, Cambodia to Bolivia, he discovers that although the cultures, resources and medical challenges of each hospital may differ, they are linked indelibly by the ground floor: the location of their emergency rooms. Here is where Dr. Maskalyk witnesses mourning and laughter, tragedies and hopes, the frailty of being and the resilience of the human spirit.

About this title

Review

Praise for Six Months in Sudan
"This journey is beautifully told in sharp beats and lyrical notes. It is the voyage of a young doctor in a hard world and deep within his own heart." --Dr. Vincent Lam, award-winning author of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
"Gripping and humane. . . . [A] brave and intelligent memoir." --Daily Mail (UK)
"Austere as the Sudanese landscape, plangent as a ballad, this book has poetry in it along with pain." --The Washington Post
"This is a rare memoir . . . with genuinely brilliant writing. I'm sure Maskalyk is a fine doctor, but he's an even better writer." --The Vancouver Sun "

"A raw, authentic and deeply humanitarian memoir of life as an emergency physician, written with eloquence and wisdom." --Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum

"Another beautiful, tender and moving portrait of humanity from one of Canada's finest new, non-fiction writers. Life on the Ground Floor perfectly captures the human spirit in all of its complexities, weaving a powerful narrative that is at once gripping, evocative and tinged with humour. In the tradition of Ryszard Kapuscinski, Katherine Boo and Wilfred Thesiger, Maskalyk has a rare sense of people and place, bringing readers along on an extraordinary journey." --Samantha Nutt, author of Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies & Aid

"Maskalyk offers penetrating, honest and deeply personal insight into modern-day medical practice with all of its paradoxes, ambiguities and uncertainties. Life on the Ground Floor is yet another superb book from one of Canada's best writers, Maskalyk at his shining best." --James Orbinski, author of An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-First Century
Praise for Six Months in Sudan
- "This journey is beautifully told in sharp beats and lyrical notes. It is the voyage of a young doctor in a hard world and deep within his own heart." --Dr. Vincent Lam, award-winning author of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
- "Gripping and humane. . . . [A] brave and intelligent memoir." --Daily Mail (UK)
- "Austere as the Sudanese landscape, plangent as a ballad, this book has poetry in it along with pain." --The Washington Post
- "This is a rare memoir . . . with genuinely brilliant writing. I'm sure Maskalyk is a fine doctor, but he's an even better writer." --The Vancouver Sun

About the Author

JAMES MASKALYK is an emergency-room physician, award-winning teacher and member of Medecins Sans Frontieres. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Six Months in Sudan, and currently divides his time between Toronto and Addis Ababa.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Canada
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0385665970
• ISBN 13: 9780385665971
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304