Vincent Lam

An essential survival guide—both to pandemic influenza, and to the hype surrounding it.Written by an emergency physician and a public health physician, The Flu Pandemic and You is a timely and forthright guide on how to prepare for an influenza pandemic, and how to understand the broader context in which this health threat exists.With cool heads and professional expertise, Drs. Lam and Lee carefully explain how readers can assess their level of risk, and set out practical advice on how to contend with a pandemic, addressing such issues • How the flu virus works and what level of threat Canadians really face• How to help protect yourself and your family from contracting influenza• How to identify symptoms• What you need to know about antiviral drugs• What to do in a worst-case scenarioThe Flu Pandemic and You develops a lucid framework to help people understand the current anxiety about influenza in the context of the risks we all face in our daily lives. This crucially important book, full of reasoned, knowledgeable advice, is an indispensable resource for fearful times.

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures invites us into a world where the ordinary becomes the critical in a matter of seconds. A formidable debut, it is a profound and unforgettable depiction of today’s doctors, patients, and hospitals.Provocative, heartbreaking, and darkly humorous, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures introduces readers to a masterful new voice in fiction. A practicing ER physician, Vincent Lam delivers a precise and intimate portrait of the medical profession in his fiction debut. These twelve interwoven stories follow a group of young doctors as they move from the challenges of medical school to the intense world of emergency rooms, evacuation missions, and terrifying new viruses. Winner of the prestigious Giller Prize, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures marks the arrival of a deeply humane and preternaturally gifted writer. Fitz, Ming, Chen, and Sri are the four ambitious protagonists of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. They fall in love as they study for their exams, face moral dilemmas as they split open cadavers, confront police who rough up their patients, and treat schizophrenics with pathologies similar to their own. In one harrowing story set amidst the 2003 SARS crisis, which the author witnessed firsthand, two of these doctors suddenly become the patients. Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures invites us into a world where the ordinary becomes the critical in a matter of seconds. A formidable debut, it is a profound and unforgettable depiction of today’s doctors, patients, and hospitals.

A superbly crafted, highly suspenseful, and deeply affecting debut novel about one man's loyalty to his country, his family and his heritage Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English academy in 1960s Saigon, and he is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of his school. Fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, he is quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country, though he also harbors a weakness for gambling haunts and the women who frequent them. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, but when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage whom he is able to confide in. But Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see. Graced with intriguingly flawed but wonderfully human characters moving through a richly drawn historical landscape, The Headmaster's Wager is an unforgettable story of love, betrayal and sacrifice.

From the bestselling, Giller Prize-winning author of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures comes an exquisitely crafted novel, piercing in its urgency and breathtaking in its intimacy, about the devastating experience of addiction.In his downtown Toronto condo, Dr. Chen awakens to the sound of streetcars below, but it is not the early morning traffic that keeps him from sleep. News banners run across his Fentanyl Crisis; Toxic Drug Supply; Record Number of Deaths. From behind the headlines, on the same screen, glow the faces of his patients, the faces of the What if he had done more, or less; or something different? Would they still be alive?Claire is a violinist; she feels at one with her music, taking flight in its melody, free in its movement. But now she rises and falls with the opioids in her system, becoming increasingly reckless. After two overdoses in twenty-four hours, she sits in the blue light of her computer, searching a notice board for my doctor saved my life ; my doctor is just another dealer . And then another message catches her attention, about Chen's be a guinea pig--why not get paid to take it ?When Claire's life intersects with Chen's, the doctor is drawn ever more deeply into the complexities of the doctor-patient relationship, the implication and meaning of his intention to treat. Chen must confront just how far he would go to save a life.Combining the depth of his experience as a physician with the brilliance of his literary talent, Vincent Lam creates a world electric in its precision, radiant in its detail. On the Ravine is a gripping novel of profound emotional force, a soaring achievement from a singular voice in Canadian fiction.

Once voted the greatest Canadian of all time, Tommy Douglas was a prairie politician who believed in democratic socialism, the crucial role of civil rights, and the great potential of cooperation for the common good. He is best known as the “Father of Medicare.” Born in 1904, Douglas was a championship boxer and a Baptist minister who later exchanged his pulpit for a political platform. A powerful orator and tireless activist, he sat first as a federal MP and then served for 17 years as premier of Saskatchewan, where he introduced the universal health-insurance system that would eventually be adopted across Canada. As leader of the national NDP, he was a staunch advocate of programs such as the Canada Pension Plan and was often the conscience of Parliament on matters of civil liberties. In the process, he made democratic socialism a part of mainstream Canadian political life. Giller Prize–winning author Vincent Lam, an emergency physician who works on the front lines of the health-care system, brings a novelist's eye to the life of one of Canada's greats.

La buena noticia es que los médicos son seres humanos. La mala noticia... es que los médicos son seres humanos. Provocativo, desgarrador y con un humor negro de lo más genuino, este libro de historias entrelazadas supone un impresionante retrato de la profesión médica a través de un grupo de jóvenes, desde los retos y el entusiasmo de la facultad hasta la realidad implacable de la práctica hospitalaria y las urgencias. Ming, Fitzgerald, Sri y Chen se enamoran al tiempo que preparan sus exámenes, afrontan dilemas morales mientras diseccionan cadáveres, se enfrentan a la policía para salvaguardar la intimidad de sus pacientes e incluso deben sobrellevar que la gran epidemia de SARS de 2003 acabe convirtiéndolos de médicos en pacientes.Reanimar corazones y otras curas milagrosas no sólo desvela las luces y las sombras de una profesión tan respetada como vapuleada, sino que indaga en la fragilidad física y espiritual del ser humano.

The Empire faces a crisis. The Empress hosts lavish parties, while in taverns across the realm agitators spout propaganda to draw in the masses to take up arms against their monarch. The job of keeping the peace falls to a handful of individuals: loyal, and hidden in the shadows. Away from prying eyes, these individuals use all means at their disposal to seek out traitors, take out agitators, and keep the realm secure and stable for another day. Yet when a member of the nobility begins to play games, can Zeventier, Magnus, and the Spymaster keep up, or will the elite of society be the ones to topple the Empress?

Lutz Grafen is alone in the border regions. Having left the service of the Amiran army, the lone musketeer travels to a remote border city far up north. When a guard finds Lutz, the man’s fortunes begin to change. With war brewing, the musketeer is introduced to a new batch of soldiers – undisciplined, and untrained. With the realities of war etched into the mind of this grizzled veteran, can Lutz Grafen survive intact and live on to fight another day, or will the remote border regions become his grave? This first installment in the series centers on the Matchlock Company and their roots. From here, the adventures of a lifetime begin.