This isn’t a book for the squeamish. It doesn’t come as a surprise that the author is a medical professional because the details are visceral and, well, detailed.
Our main character is a surgeon, ostracized to a remote village after fleeing scandal in the city. As the only doctor in an impoverished location, he is stretched thin, often using his own resources to purchase supplies. His only assistant is a young woman, untrained but willing to help.
One night a family appears at the clinic – husband and pregnant wife and their young son. They are dead, victims of a violent robbery. They beg the surgeon to repair their injuries, telling him that if he can do so before morning, their lives will be restored. The surgeon, not a man who is demonstrably compassionate or patient, has to make a choice to risk his own life and career for an outcome that seems too fantastical to be true.
As the night progresses, we learn more about what has happened to this family and what exactly life after death might look like. What might a parent do for their child? How desperate are we to cling to life?
The book is hard to read at several times and I found myself skimming over passages vividly describing surgeries and the interiors of human bodies. I’m sure the details are accurate and the juxtaposition between between the vitality of the human body and the dead nature of this family is crucial to the novels progression. But I imagine a lot of readers will find the intensity of it all difficult to take in.
Karissa Reads Books 
Ooh, I often don’t do well with magical realism, so I’ve given this one a pass up til now. It sounds like maybe that was the right idea…
Probably the right choice! You have to be willing to buy in on this one and it’s both very scientific and totally unrealistic.
Eeeeeewwww. Though maybe I should read it to practice for medical interpreting and not getting grossed out.
The book takes a very factual, scientific approach to it all. It’s not trying to gross the reader out but it just kind of does when we hear intimate internal details of our bodies. I am mildly squeamish and some scenes were definitely harder to read than others!
I really loved this one, though I’m not squeamish at all (I mean, I used to be a surgical nurse) so that probably helped. Although I’m not in general a magical realism fan, I found the way it was used here to be brilliant. In fact, I might be tempted to reread it now!
I think FictionFan reviewed this awhile ago, and I remember being intrigued by her review, and yours has done the same. I love the mixture of the factual and the fantastical here, it sounds really unique! I don’t think I’m that squeamish, but I haven’t read a whole lot of books similar to this so I don’t think I have much to compare to…
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