Medicine is supposed to impose order upon the body, but the people practising it are...iffy.

In Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, Vincent Lam follows a group of young doctors through medical school, clinical training and professional life by way of twelve interconnected stories. Threading, Lam moves between dissection rooms, emergency departments, intimate relationships and moments of psychological crisis. His characters confront the weirdness of intimacy generated by medicine; one created when bodies become objects of study while remaining 'stubbornly' human, and professional authority frequently conceals uncertainty, prejudice or fear.

Drawing on his own experience as a physician, Lam knows the language and rituals of medical practice, and exposes the ways institutional training can both sharpen and diminish a person's capacity for empathy from an inside POV. Winner of the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Anchor Canada, Canada, 2006. Anchor Canada paperback edition, later printing. Illustrated wrappers with light rubbing, edgewear and minor corner wear. Interior pages appear clean and well preserved.