The Dressing Station

Book excerpt: In this “vividly compelling” New York Times Notable Book, a surgeon recounts his experiences in war zones (The Washington Post). From treating the casualties of apartheid in Cape Town to operating on Kurdish guerrillas in Northern Iraq at the end of the Gulf War, Jonathan Kaplan has saved (and lost) lives in the remotest corners of the world in the most extreme conditions. He has been a hospital surgeon, a ship’s physician, an air-ambulance doctor, and a trauma surgeon. He has worked in locations as diverse as England, Burma, Eritrea, the Amazon, Mozambique, and the United States. In his “eloquent . . . beautifully written” memoir of unforgettable adventure and tragedy, Dr. Kaplan explores the great challenge of his career—to maintain his humanity in the face of incredible pain and suffering (The New York Times Book Review). “Packed with moments of searing intensity,” The Dressing Station is an “extraordinary” look into the nature of human violence, the shattering contradictions of war, and the complicated role of medicine in the modern world (The Washington Post). “In this refreshingly unsentimental memoir, [Kaplan] offers a vivid look at what it’s like to practice medicine in places where there are always too many casualties and not enough resources. His descriptions of surgery are unflinching . . . Kaplan gives us a remarkable self-portrait of the war junkie.” —The New Yorker