From Publishers Weekly
One of five recipients of the 2002 Pacific Northwest Book Award, Danner's previously self-published debut novel is a captivating tale about an American doctor who brings her medical expertise to a snowy village in northern India and quickly finds herself in over her head. After her husband, Richard, dies, Mary Davis relocates to the small, rudimentary Himalayan hospital where he once worked, hoping to carry on his medical labor of love. The remote, bare-bones facility is run by Dr. Vargeela, a hero of Richard's, who disappears shortly after Mary's arrival, leaving her in charge of a small staff of nurses, a motley collection of patients some severely ill and limited medical provisions, as well as the drugged-out, obnoxious Western hippies who regularly drift into the hospital. Davis's diligence, along with plenty of rushed (and impressively detailed) operations, pays off, and she manages to keep the facility afloat. But she's powerless to stop the kidnapping of Phillip Davenport, the teenage son of a British diplomat, who becomes a patient of Mary's when he breaks his neck. Preparing to transfer Phillip to a different hospital, Mary sends him off in a jeep whose driver, well aware of the pampered boy's bankability, ends up holding him for ransom. A taut, nail-biting climax unfurls across the frozen canyons of the Himalayas. Danner, a former medical practitioner in Himalayan India, parlays his technical knowledge and storytelling skill into a vibrant, emotionally resonant tale.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Danner, a physician's assistant in Oregon, offers a first novel that can be seen as a story of redemption. Many of its characters have suffered outward violence or inner doubts but have overcome or at least learned to live with their difficulties. Although much of the book consists of internal musing and emotion, its setting in a small hospital in an Indian village 10,000 feet up in the Himalayas is as striking as some of the action. Mary, a U.S. physician, comes to the hospital to continue the work of her husband, recently killed in an accident. After an uncomfortable and sobering journey, she arrives to find a note from the hospital's founding physician informing her that he will be away indefinitely. Alone except for a few local nurses and helpers, Mary immerses herself in medical and surgical activities, despite the hospital's rudimentary equipment and her lack of knowledge of the local language. Melding the humaneness of his characters and the harsh beauty of their surroundings, Danner produces a quiet, sympathetic, increasingly appealing story.
William BeattyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
