Six Months in Sudan

“This is an extraordinary book, a piercingly authentic account of the fear, confusion, and hope of a young doctor newly deployed to a humanitarian crisis wrapped around by a war. James Maskalyk’s commitment to survival – his own as well as his patients’ – illuminates this account of doctoring in the sort of desperate place where it couldn’t matter more.” —Jonathan Kaplan, author of The Dressing Station“Maskalyk’s soft prose is beautiful and invites with the right intimate details. He offers a rare window on the inner life of an aid worker, on what it means to be a humanitarian around the hard edges of war, and on the certain drive to go on. Why? Because in his words, `hope not only meets despair in equal measure, it drowns it.’”—James Orbinski, author of An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-First Century“This journey is beautifully told in sharp beats, and lyrical notes. It is the voyage of a young doctor out into a hard world, and deep within his own heart.”—Vincent Lam, author of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures“Six Months is Sudan is a wrenchingly heartbreaking account of distant agonies almost too pointed to grasp. Learning about Maskalyk’s work there is stirring, but the real miracle is this book paints a picture so precisely and vividly that it becomes impossible to look away. This is Maskalyk’s accomplishment, and his gift to the Sudanese and to us. The shame of our indifference retreats before his exhortation: ‘learn, and understand,’ and perhaps a more bearable future becomes possible for all of us.”—Kevin Patterson, author of Consumption