War Hospital: A True Story Of Surgery And Survival

by Sheri Fink

From Sheri Fink, author of Five Days at Memorial, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction

In April 1992, a handful of young physicians, not one of them a surgeon, was trapped along with 50,000 men, women, and children in the embattled enclave of Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina. There the doctors faced the most intense professional, ethical, and personal predicaments of their lives.

Drawing on extensive interviews, documents, and recorded materials she collected over four and a half years, doctor and journalist Sheri Fink tells the harrowing--and ultimately enlightening--story of these physicians and the three who try to help them: an idealistic internist from Doctors without Borders, who hopes that interposition of international aid workers will help prevent a massacre; an aspiring Bosnian surgeon willing to walk through minefields to reach the civilian wounded; and a Serb doctor on the opposite side of the front line with the army that is intent on destroying his former colleagues.

With limited resources and a makeshift hospital overflowing with patients, how can these doctors decide who to save and who to let die? Will their duty to treat patients come into conflict with their own struggle to survive? And are there times when medical and humanitarian aid ironically prolong war and human suffering rather than helping to relieve it?

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Medicine, Medical, War, Memoir, Science

458 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Dr. Sheri Fink’s reporting has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Award, and the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award, among other journalism prizes. Most recently, her coverage of the 2012 hurricane season and its effects on the health care systems of New York City and New Orleans won the Mike Berger Award from Columbia Journalism School and the beat reporting award from the Association of Health Care Journalists in 2013. Her story “The Deadly Choices at Memorial,” co-published by ProPublica and the New York Times Magazine, chronicled decisions made by the medical staff of one New Orleans hospital in the desperate days after Hurricane Katrina.

Fink is a fellow at the New America Foundation. A former relief worker in disaster and conflict zones, she received her M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her first book, War Hospital: A True Story of Surgery and Survival (PublicAffairs), is about medical professionals under siege during the genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Reviews

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the gift of a fine writer, whether of fiction or non-fiction, to be able to place the reader…right there. So, that for however long you are reading, the outside world falls away, and you find yourself completely inside the experiences, thoughts, words of the actual people or characters inside a book.

Dr. Sheri Fink has done something along these lines, but by overcoming more difficult obstacles than most authors. For the story of the War Hospital in Srebrenica is not a story of a place that any of us would ever wish to be in. But there we are. And it is testament to Sheri Fink's skill as a writer that no matter how you may wish to pull away—and you will—from the first details of an amputation, to the genocide that ends the story, Dr. Fink keeps the reader riveted, going forward, much as the doctors in Srebrenica, operating for much of their time in Civil-War era-like conditions, could also not pull away, despite the very human desire, oft-mentioned, to do just that.

Sheri Fink accomplishes two tremendous things with “War Hospital.” First, this is a top-shelf work of journalism, reportage. Without shrinking away from the horrors, both physical and emotional that occur on a near-daily basis, she makes the situation, the awful situation, inside Srebrenica, plain. She makes the incomprehensible understandable. It is no small feat.

But she also writes movingly, beautifully, and never allows her straightforward, elegant writing to get in the way of the story. She plunges her hands into the rich soil of this tragedy, and presents it so that any reader can follow the terrible chain of events, the vast international failure, that led to the horrors before and following Srebrenica's fall.

There is a phrase whose overuse has rendered it nearly meaningless: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Sheri Fink's “War Hospital” is a blow against that amnesia. I hope that such books—as brilliant as this one—may not for long need to be written again.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. I read this after reading "5 Days at Memorial" as I liked the author and the perspective that she provided on actual events. This book was written about physicians aiding in the Bosnian War in the mountainous city of Srebrenica. I thought she did a great job of providing a prospective not only of those who were native Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Serbs, but also of the NGO's that went in the provide "humanitarian aid". It was fascinating to read the bureaucracy that goes into providing humanitarian aid as well as simply fighting a war. I felt like I lost sleep thinking about the atrocities that were committed because of hatred, and the atrocities committed by not stepping in to aid the victims of war. I would definitely recommend this book. There were times were my stomach turned because of the endless war wounds that are treated by the doctors, but amputations aside, it's a great book to make you think!

[Marsha Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was meticulously researched and fascinating to read. It's extremely disappointing to know that worldwide people continue to fight rather than love, accept and support one another. After reading this, I understand better the history behind the conflict in Bosnia/Serbia. It's disturbing to think that outsiders did not get involved when intervention could have made a huge difference in the outcome. The author was thorough without being overly graphic and she was fair in her assessment and presentation of individuals. Her purposeful tense shift approach was a little distracting.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely fascinating and well written book. I stopped many times to think about the nature of man, our political system and what I would do if I ever was in a situation like the brave people in Srebrenica. I'm not sure I could be nearly as brave.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s no way to “jolly up” the effects of war, and Shari Fink’s book is a sobering account of a community under siege and of its local hospital--short-staffed, without electricity, and often without supplies--during the 1990s Yugoslav war. Performing surgeries, including amputations, under hardship conditions is challenging enough; add the fact that most of the doctors were not even trained as surgeons, and you get a small sense of the medical challenges during wartime.

I wish this were required reading before any country allowed itself to become engaged in war. It’s a sobering reminder of the results of nationalism and media manipulation (two strong contributors to the Bosnian conflict). It’s also a cautionary tale about the breakdown of social institutions during wartime. Despite its sobering realism, the book on occasion also reminds us that humanity can be found in the midst of otherwise inhuman conditions.

The epilogue includes “where are they now?” updates on the doctors and other key figures in the narrative, as well as astute analysis of the conflict itself and questions about sending in humanitarian aid when military intervention might be more appropriate (especially in a war zone where genocidal intent grows increasingly clear).

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after reading Sheri Fink's more recent Five Days at Memorial and much like that work, War Hospital delves into some very difficult questions. War Hospital is set during the long siege of Srebenica in Bosnia and is centered around the doctors who practice medicine in heart-wrenching conditions inside the hospital there, as well as on the International medical aid community who served in Srebenica alongside them. As the book hurtles towards the impending genocide and devastation of 1995, the reader feels the same sense of hopelessness and doom that those trapped inside the enclave do. Fink doesn't just bring alive those harrowing years and final desperate weeks, she also asks what the responsibility of the international community is during wartime and lays bare the problem of believing that humanitarian aid is a substitute for resolving crisis and preventing suffering in the first place, through diplomacy and if necessary even military force. A thought provoking and well researched work of narrative non-fiction.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps not as shocking to me as it should have been, this is a story that needs to be told and retold about many hospitals in many places. The commonality between this "war hospital" and the average poverty-ridden public hospital in the US is upsetting. Everyone should read Sheri Fink's books, and if you're more interested in what might happen in the USA, read Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, her new book.

[Bianca Ichim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me more than one year to finish it as it was hard to start reading a new chapter after crying a lot over the last one. It is my new favorite book and I heartily recommend it to all medical students. Thank you so so much, Man Docanu :D

[Mintyworms · Rating 5 out of 5]

Library Review: Book
5/5

Amazing read. I commend the author on this gargantuan novel. She interwove the historical context really well and told the story in a way that places us with the individuals of the time in fear and horror. It’s still a shock every time I’m reminded that the individuals in this story and the tragedies that occurred were all real. I learned a lot about a war that I’ve never heard of until now. Because the author was a doctor, the medical scenes were described really concisely and well. It was perplexing to continue to read about how the United Nations and NATO, and to a lesser extent the humanitarian aid organizations (ie, Red Cross and MSF/Doctors Without Borders) continued to drag their feet in intervening— in essence prolonging the genocide and silently encouraging the perpetrators. At first, I was frustrated and disillusioned by the efficacy of the democratic governments and powerhouses of the world. I became very skeptical of organizations in general and the amount of bureaucracy and disconnect higher ups have from the ground. As I read on in the story and helpful assistance continued to be delayed, I saw things in a new light. For the powerhouses of the world (US, UK, France, etc), although the UN was a peace organization that gave them more influence, it is also a real commitment from them. Thus their leaders would think extensively on investing their own civilians and financial resources to intervene on a war they have no stake in— for the sake of peace keeping. After thinking about that, I can understand why officials dragged their feet. On a morality scale, I could see why outside nations and aid groups don’t want to associate with any military on either side, lest their political standing be misconstrued. However, in the Serbian vs Bosnia war, it was pretty obvious that one side was cruel and championing for ethnic cleansing— which is an affront to humanity in general— no politics need to be in place to see what is wrong with that. Additionally, by conceding time and time again to the Serbian side, are the world powers not therefore recognizing the validity of the Serbs as a nation state? I was in awe of the selflessness of the doctors in this story and even though they all made different choices depending on their situation, I could sympathize with them all. It really makes me question the principles of medical ethics, and to what point ethics govern all the identities of your life, as well as the situations in your life. I’m sure the ethics weren’t drafted with a war situation in mind, and maybe there should be separate or extra stipulations for that. I wonder if I would have the similar persistence and drive as the local doctors to endure, the courage and good will to volunteer myself as the humanitarian doctors.

Favorite quotes:
- Quoted from Mesa Selimovic, Fortress, after Dr. Ilijaz picked up a gun to start attacking the enemy: “‘by the only victor: the utter silence of the ancient earth, indifferent to human misery’ and filled with “that deepest of all sadness, of defeat that follows victory.’ … ‘In that long, sleepless night,’ wrote Selimovic, ‘in the black fear that was not the enemy, but if something within me, I was born as what I am, unsure if all that is me and of all that is human.’”
- “Neutrality in the face of genocide amounts to complicity.”
- Quoted from Dr. Eric Dachy in the epilogue: “‘There is no justice without power and humanitarian compassion is not power.’” This highlights a point made in the book about how humanitarian aid, noble as its intentions, can actually do more harm. Like in the book, many UN countries used aid workers as an excuse not to issue an attack on the Serbs (don’t want to endanger workers on the ground). Providing aid does not solve the issue, but puts a bandaid on the situation— and can even lull others to not seeing the bigger picture. War is the cause of all this misery, the aid means nothing if people continue to get injured after rehabilitation.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The War was the Bosnian war in the early 1990s; the Hospital was the hospital in the besieged mostly Muslim Bosnian city of Srebrenica. "War Hospital" is both a riveting tale of medical professionals working in horrendous conditions and a maddening account of how the international community failed to make good on its promise that Srebrenica would be a "safe zone."
Here's a sentence that would evoke frustration under any circumstances:
The person who receives the request rejects it because it's on the wrong form.
But in its context, that sentence made me want to hurl the book across the room. (Note to the library from which the book was borrowed: I did not do this.) If you read this book, when you get to Page 291, you'll see for yourself.
You will be rewarded if you do read it by skillful, knowledgeable reporting, but reading about the extent of man's inhumanity to man is painful. It's painful, too, to realize that the same things are happening today, just with the names of places and people changing. It may be a superficial comparison, but to me, much of what was happening in Bosnia then sounded a lot like what has been happening in Syria in recent years.
Elsewhere, the government of Sudan ruthlessly attacks its own people in the name of ethnic cleansing. South Sudan, which split off from Sudan, is embroiled in a brutal civil war of its own. The city of Mosul, in northern Iraq, has been virtually destroyed, with survivors left in unthinkable straits. The Christian relief agency Samaritan's Purse operates an emergency field hospital north of Mosul, where volunteers respond to atrocities similar to those once faced by the medical professionals in Srebrenica. This is what "Nurse Maranatha" wrote in the agency's summer 2017 "Prayer Point":
A beautiful girl of 5 years old lies still on an emergency room cot, her angelic eyes staring upward, with dark, curly, brown hair matted in blood around her forehead. Occasionally, she blinks. She doesn't cry or say a word.
"Thirteen more coming," I hear someone say. I glance around the room, swallowing hard. Patients are filling every bed. Stretchers are wheeling through the room, transporting the next patients to the two operating rooms. The ones missing limbs go first.
In her epilogue, Sheri Fink writes, "It is my great, albeit unrealistic, hope that no doctors or nurses will ever again have to face such decisions."
A great hope, indeed, and one that fallen humanity cannot achieve.

[Jove · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping that this book, really a series of stories about different medical personnel through the Bosnia / Serbian civil war, would adhere more closely to the medical aspects of the war. However, the drama inherent to living through the horrible events described in the book make for engaging reading. I would say that the book is largely carried on the strength of the underlying events. I enjoyed the writing in the other Sheri Fink book "Five Days at Memorial" better, although I was more frustrated by the point of view adopted in that book.

For my purposes, the most memorable sub stories involved the freshly minted doctor (i believe a pathologist) who walked across the front lines to Srebrenica and became the local surgeon, as well as numerous stories of doctors working long hours while episodically coming under fire.

Unfortunately, a lasting memory from this book, and one that the author emphasizes, is the impotence of the UN and NATO in confronting the violence in Srebrenica. The Dutch UN peace keepers seem to be the prime example of this, as they lost several outposts to the attacking Serbian army without firing a shot. While they were perhaps a deterrent at times, they also provided the Serbs with high quality weapons when they were disarmed/ Another group of UN peacekeepers hindered the NATO response when they were captured and used to disincentivize a bombing campaign. Nearly three decades later, it is frustrating to read the assertive proclamations of human rights violations, only to be brushed aside with limited consequences. Even the delayed trials and convictions seem vastly disproportionately weak in comparison to the violence commited. It seems that from a leaders point of view, even the threat of a delayed war crimes trial likely would not dissuade an army's leader from using banned methods if it facilitated victory or held the hope of staving off defeat.

[Robin Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheri Fink’s non-fiction work, published in 2003, is an incredible telling of what happened in the city of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War – a horror that raged from 1992–1995. Fink’s work focuses on a warzone hospital and the individuals who worked there. She writes of the paths that led the heroes of this story to the hospital. She describes how they learned the practice of war medicine in real time. Reading about the hospital’s day-to-day, you see the doctors and nurses suffer horrible losses, and work through grisly conditions. The physical, mental, and emotional toll is brutal. At the book’s end, only during the horrific massacre that took place in their village and threatened everyone, do the doctors, nurses, and others leave.

At its conclusion, Fink poses questions about the presence of humanitarian workers in such situations. Do such services provoke a false sense of normalcy and security? What is the responsibility of the medical professional when there is clear violation of anything resembling humanitarianism? Are expectations of neutrality for medical professionals the right stance?

I remember watching the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. It was a beautiful venue amidst picturesque mountains. People sat at sidewalk cafes drinking coffee and wine. Ten years later, those mountains sheltered snipers, foragers for food, and refugees trying to find a safe place. The Olympic stadiums were in ruins and marked by warfare. It is hard to believe it can happen. This book made me understand what happens when it does.

[Jason Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheri Fink tells an in-depth and disturbing account of medical professionals during the Bosnian War. The doctors had to preform care and operations without supplies, training, and at times without electricity all while worrying about their own needs and safety. World humanitarian organizations would send in medical professionals for short stays and negotiated sending in supplies at different times, but this leads to a larger question.

Humanitarian organizations such as Red Cross cannot become involved in anything that may be construed as a war effort. Even operating on soldiers becomes debatable as well as traveling to the front lines to offer aid. Many times, humanitarian organizations hands are tied (or they tie their own hands) and they have to have a show on both sides of the fighting. This also can tie the hands of the United Nations and countries trying to provide military support, because now they have civilians in danger who cannot participate in the war.

This book is shocking and eye opening about the horrors of war that are not talked about in the press as well as the red tape in providing humanitarian and military aid. Read this book gave me pause as I thought of Ukraine and how their situation cannot be much different.

This book is graphic regarding to performing surgery and the injuries sustained. It also provides a deep sense of helplessness, anguish, and frustration.

A five-star read that I think leads way to a much larger conversation about what is real help and how help should be given.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about the mid-1990's Bosnian war. It is specifically about the doctors, nurses and medical staff at a small hospital in Srebrenica, a small town that found itself surrounded by the warring forces. Six or seven young doctors, none of whom were surgeons, found themselves trapped and desperately needed by the civilians. They were given support, of both supplies and knowledge, on a sporadic basis by the Doctors Without Borders organization.

I felt like this book went from 0-60 too fast. I got lost in trying to figure out which group was the "bad guys" and which group was the "good guys," especially when the doctors are a mixed group. I wished that the author had maybe explained the Bosnian war just a tiny bit longer, maybe one more paragraph or one more page even, and I wouldn't have been so lost. As it was, I was reading the whole book thinking "so the Muslims are the good guys now?" "Wait, who are the Chetniks?" That is my major complain with this book. And the author does provide a list of major characters at the start of the book, but that wasn't enough to save me.

[Sara Somerville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sheri Fink has written a book about one of Europe’s worst modern tragedies. It is a very well researched and written book. Probably, like a lot of people, I had forgotten many of the horrendous details of this tragedy. The book follows the doctors and medical personnel who bravely carried out their Hippocratic oath in Srebrenica. Unlike many of the other reviewers of this book I have to say I found it rather hard going at times. I was even considering not finishing this book - which is something I don’t often do. I did however see it all the way through and I’m glad I did. Although I found it a tough read I was glad to be reminded of what went on during this period in Srebrenica. There are some harrowing descriptions of surgery and survival, so don’t expect a light read when you pick this book up.

[Robin Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my top ten books. Here is history made real, war in the subjective tense, some of the finest of human impulses and drives countered and checked by timid bureaucratic legalisms under horrific circumstances. From the inciting of distrust all the way to attempted genocide, this is a coherent and terrifying story.

I profoundly admire Sheri Fink for her balance, her restraint, and the compassion of her voice. She lets us feel our own emotions, she never tells her reader what to think. The final chapter, setting forth her conclusions and even her hopes, should make this required reading for our military, foreign service servants, all health professionals and those involved in the ethical studies of law and politics, international and domestic.

[Beverly Hollandbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an account of a small group of doctors involved in humanitarian aid in the Bosnia/Serbian War in the 1990s. If you remember the reports from that war, there were so many different factions that it was difficult to figure out who was fighting and why, and that, for me, was also the case in this book (there are Serbians and Bosnians and Serbian Muslims and Bosnian Muslims, for example). But who is who was not the point. The sacrifices and suffering of medical personnel were incredible. It's hard to understand why people would volunteer (in MSF) to go to a war, and the planet is blessed to have people like this. The author, Dr. Fink, presented a well-researched and compelling narrative.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved Fink's writing in her book Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital. This book was harder for me to get into, and I think it was because it was difficult keep the groups and factions straight and remember who was who. But I greatly appreciate Fink's extraordinary research and diligence in reporting the atrocities that occurred in Srebrenica and the heroism of the doctors who continued to attempt to save people in a war zone for as long as possible.

[Peter Meerem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well researched and utterly unputdownable. Fink drags you by the ear through the horrors of the Balkan wars, forcing you to feel to desolation and helplessness of medical professionals desperately trying to save a civilian population besieged by Serb forces intent on revenge for an Ottoman invasion 600 years ago.
A tour the force. Stop reading this review and go buy it.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unique perspective only the Bosnian war experience. Well written, but long and a bit dry (as I often find with documentaries) so I ended up skimming much of the war history, but always slowed down to fully absorb the medical accounts (fascinating and absorbing, as a fellow surgeon!).

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was very interesting. The writing made it hard to get into the book. Might have been closer to 3 or 4 stars otherwise. Definitely a book that needed some more help with writing and editing.

[Terry Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happened across this book at one of those "Free Libraries" in my local community. As I am intrigued by the Balkans Region in general I gave it a go - and am so glad I did. A riveting account from many different perspectives of one of the most tragic events in a tragic conflict.

[Myrka · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was good and very descriptive. I do regret picking this book due to my lack of focus and engagement towards it.

[Marvin Serrano · Rating 5 out of 5]

its was very aspiring and when i read it gave me a lot of feelings

[Abby Jarret · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is super moving. I'm not sure if it gives a complete view of the tradegy but it was a personal view of the war that I've never heard before. I read in 3 days it was so good!

[Delanor Jacobs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot more political than expected. Wanted it to be more like "Five days at Memorial ".

[Grace Pesch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tough read for a variety of reasons, but it was an important glimpse into war and genocide.

[Yasmine Abu halawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense, honest, and brave. An eye-opening account into a long-forgotten tragedy.

The stories of war are usually told by the winner, less often the loser. But this one is different, told from the eyes of doctors and medical workers; war takes a different form. A crisis of humanity. An inexcusable use of power. A failure of politics.

What the world truly needs, is a new perspective. If we all saw war through it's victims, what would we do? If the starving children and the bleeding men were right in front of us, how would the world react? We hide behind the comfort of distance and forgetfulness. Going on about our day, as people, one by one, perish, at the hands of their fellows.

Again and again. I am overcome by a sense of guilt and the need to help. And then, like the rest of us, I forget.

This is not true for the aid workers in this story, not true of the doctors and surgeons who risked their lives to try to lend a helping hand. They are the bravest of us all, for they offered their help in hopes of no reward. No money, no patriotism, no medals, nothing.

To be an aid worker, I believe, is to become an angel on Earth, one whose hands are tied by the chains of legal jargon and bureaucracy.

Another matter presents itself, as doctors, delivering medical services and maintaining neutrality is crucial. But when thousands and thousands of patients pass in front of you, it becomes a moral duty to stand up and demand the end of their suffering.

But at the risk of endangering yourself and your patients, how far do you go? How much power do you yield, a single voice in the midst of the clutter of war.

As a medical student, my profession never seemed so ... heroic. To stand in an operating room, with bombs falling around you is ... unimaginable. The strength of those doctors is to be forgotten. There are doctors right now, operating under the same conditions, or even worse. Never forget them.

I hope to one day become as brave and selfless as the doctors in this book, and I hope to God, if I'm ever needed, that I have the strength to carry on.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a powerful book about the siege and eventual fall/genocide of Srebrenica, but I am not sure I would chose to read it again if I was able to go back in time. It was a heartbreaking, extremely detailed account of a war that I had only cursory understanding of previously. It was also a sad commentary on the ability of those in power to manipulate and engender fear and hatred among a population for their own agenda. I am left wondering whether I would be half as brave, innovative, or determined as the people described; I think it is very unlikely.

I was also struck with the likely parallels to the war in Syria, and wondering if we are in fact falling into the same mistakes and ignorance of human suffering all over again in our attempts (or lack thereof) to "help."

Ends with a discussion of the challenge of providing medical and humanitarian aid in the midst of conflict, and the need for the global community to sometimes act militarily to be humanitarian. I am left, however, not really knowing what to do with all of questions posed and mistakes shown in the book. If I somehow had the chance, I would encourage the author to add a short "where are they now" section to bring us up to date with the main characters in a future edition. I guess I wanted some kind of naive happy moment at the end where you find out that some survivors went on to thrive in spite of what they endured.

[Mansoor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about this book when NPR interviewed the author, and I thought it would be a great way to learn more about the war in the former Yugoslavia. The book discusses the war through the experience of one town, Srebrenica.

Fink did a great job researching the war. War Hospital explains clearly the history of the region, the politics behind the war, and the progression of the war.

She also detailed an interesting paradox that had never occurred to me. In the book, Fink describes how countries believed they should get involved, but delayed making a decision by sending humanitarian aid. In this way, humanitarian aid actually prolonged the suffering of the people in Srebrenica.

The only downside to this book is that it's told in the present tense. It was distracting to hear a universally aware narrator telling the story as if she were in the midst of it. You're either in the story, or you're not. The writing makes it difficult to read unless you're really interested in the war, Médicins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), or the politics of humanitarian aid.