Mortal Lessons

A surgeon shares true stories of life, death, and the human body in an essay collection that “will nail you to your chair” ( Saturday Review ). With settings ranging from the operating theater to a Korean ambulance, and topics as varied as the disposition of a corpse and the author’s own childhood, these nineteen captivating, wry, and intimate vignettes offer a poignant examination of health, humanity, and, of course, mortality. Sometimes tragic, sometimes humorous, the essays offer a physician’