Dancer in the Garden: The Complete Collection with 18 Additional True Stories

Book excerpt: Kra uses storytelling to connect medicine with the human condition, resulting in tales of love and loss, triumph, and disillusionment. From post-war France and Switzerland to a modern private cardiology practice and the teaching hospitals at Yale, Kra diagnoses rare diseases, falls in love, and even survives a plane crash on a frozen lake. An exploration of the Golden Age of Medicine coupled with vivid moments of unusual, captivating stories with a cast of compelling characters. Now with 18 engaging, delightful, interesting, and surprising additional stories, most never before published. “I take care of people’s hearts so they can go on loving. I can think of no greater privilege.” "Kra came to America in 1938 as a boy when his family fled the Nazis. After working his way through CCNY, he found himself blackballed by U.S. med schools in the 1950s because he’d been marked as an agitator, so he went to Europe to study medicine in France and Switzerland. One of the best and most moving pieces here dates back to his med student days in Switzerland, where he lost his heart to a beautiful young dancer, a tb patient in a sanatorium high in the Swiss Alps (“Gabrielle’s Dance”)…. I suspect Siegfried Kra must have been a damn good doctor. And, after reading DANCER IN THE GARDEN, I know he’s a good storyteller too. Kudos to Pleasure Boat Studio publisher for printing this lively collection. Very highly recommended.” -TimBazzett, Librarything