The Dressing Station

One of my favourite books of recent years was 'The Dressing Station' by the war surgeon Jonathan Kaplan. I have belatedly discovered to my shame that he has just published another book, 'Contact Wounds'. Here is an interview with the man himself. In both his writing and in conversation, he is astonishingly frank:

'My skills have become suited towards crude extremes of suffering – war trauma, humanitarian crises. There is little other market for my abilities, or for the odd combination I suffer of imperfect clinical detachment, the vice of restlessness and some tarnished shreds of idealism. It is really only in the world's darker corners that they have any chance to shine.'