About the Author

VINCENT LAM is from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam. Trained in Toronto, he was an emergency physician for thirteen years. He is now an addictions medicine physician, the Medical Director of the Coderix Medical Clinic, and a lecturer at the University of Toronto. Lam’s debut, a collection of short stories called Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, won the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize. His bestselling novel, The Headmaster’s Wager, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2012. He is also the co-author of The Flu Pandemic and You, which received an award from the American Medical Writers Association in 2007, and author of a biography of Tommy Douglas, published as part of the Extraordinary Canadians series. Lam and his family live in Toronto.

Reviews

Winner of the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Amazon.ca Editor's Pick, Best Books of 2006
A Toronto Star Best Book of 2006

"[A] masterly debut."
—The Guardian

"[A] compelling first book of fiction. . . . It adds up to a running start at a high-voltage literary career."
—Toronto Star

"Lam excels at this kind of steady accumulation of truths, a tangling of action and incident that renders judgement of the characters difficult, and futile besides. The writing is often lovely . . . [and] some of the best stories in Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures read like journalistic dispatches from the medical front lines, with careful psychological characterizations added. As such, Lam's book represents a promising demonstration of fiction's unique power to bring the news that stays news, in Ezra Pound's formulation, and to allow the reader to see through the eyes of those who experience events firsthand."
—New York Times Book Review

"Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures radiates the confidence you expect from a man whose other job is to make stalled hearts start. The advantage of fiction? Here, even the medical failures come to life, vividly."
—The Globe and Mail

"Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures is a satisfying, engrossing read, partly because of the intrinsically fascinating subject matter, but also because of Lam's patient characterizations and understanding of the human heart." 
—National Post

"Bloodletting is a swift, dynamic read. From story to story, Lam unveils his characters' lives in careful ellipses, leaving clues like puzzle pieces to twist this way and that, each detail eventually dovetailing to form a picture. . . . What makes Bloodletting so remarkable is its depth. The stories are entertaining on their own, but if you delve more deeply, you'll find human lessons sketched out with subtlety. . . . Lam entertains and educates with fluidity and style, and that just might be a miraculous cure of the literary kind."
—San Francisco Chronicle

"Lam takes us through the moral dilemmas of today's medical profession with dark humour but also with tenderness for the weak spots of each of the doctors. . . . [Characters'] vulnerable layers are methodically revealed through Lam's unique ability to make the reader meet his scientific pace. . . . The balancing act never stops."
—Newsweek

"There's no information like inside information, and Lam puts his to good use. . . . [His] fiction strikes a balance between clinical and emotional detail. . . . [An] impressive first book, by all appearances." 
—The Ottawa Citizen

"If you want to know what a person must go through to become a practicing physician in a Canadian hospital, reading this riveting collection will give you a better picture than if you pored over a truckload of treatises on public health."
—Calgary Herald

"A searing, perfectly paced set of linked stories. . . . Tender insight into the fascinating emotional and social implications of a career that is, inherently, so much more than a job."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Vincent Lam crafts sentences that veteran writers will covet. His fresh and stunning talent will satisfy all readers who hunger for powerful stories."
—Wayson Choy, author of All That Matters

This collection of linked stories revolves around four young multicultural Canadian medical students-Fitz, Ming, Chen, and Sri-as they attempt to balance their lives with the taxing demands of classes and residency in a highly charged emergency room. They deal with patients' ailments, from hiccups to a fatal heart attack in a massage parlor; in this case, the doctor, when talking with the family, has to find a "balance of professing humanity without invading privacy." Some stories ramble along with little action-one features the romance between Fitz and Ming, their breakup, and her eventual marriage to Doctor Chen-but most are action packed and insightful, including a psychological thriller about a patient who believes he has been poisoned by the neighbor who's secretly in love with him and another tale about an outbreak of SARS in the hospital that forces Fitz and Chen to come to terms with the possibility of their own deaths. Written in a straightforward manner and including a helpful glossary of medical terms, this is a good addition to every fiction collection.-David A. Beron?, Plymouth State Univ., NH Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Winner of the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Amazon.ca Editor's Pick, Best Books of 2006
A Toronto Star Best Book of 2006

"[A] masterly debut."
-The Guardian

"[A] compelling first book of fiction. . . . It adds up to a running start at a high-voltage literary career."
-Toronto Star

"Lam excels at this kind of steady accumulation of truths, a tangling of action and incident that renders judgement of the characters difficult, and futile besides. The writing is often lovely . . . [and] some of the best stories in Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures read like journalistic dispatches from the medical front lines, with careful psychological characterizations added. As such, Lam's book represents a promising demonstration of fiction's unique power to bring the news that stays news, in Ezra Pound's formulation, and to allow the reader to see through the eyes of those who experience events firsthand."
-New York Times Book Review

"Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures radiates the confidence you expect from a man whose other job is to make stalled hearts start. The advantage of fiction? Here, even the medical failures come to life, vividly."
-The Globe and Mail

"Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures is a satisfying, engrossing read, partly because of the intrinsically fascinating subject matter, but also because of Lam's patient characterizations and understanding of the human heart."
-National Post

"Bloodletting is a swift, dynamic read. From story to story, Lam unveils his characters' lives in careful ellipses, leaving clues like puzzle pieces to twist this way and that, each detail eventually dovetailing to form a picture. . . . What makes Bloodletting so remarkable is its depth. The stories are entertaining on their own, but if you delve more deeply, you'll find human lessons sketched out with subtlety. . . . Lam entertains and educates with fluidity and style, and that just might be a miraculous cure of the literary kind."
-San Francisco Chronicle

"Lam takes us through the moral dilemmas of today's medical profession with dark humour but also with tenderness for the weak spots of each of the doctors. . . . [Characters'] vulnerable layers are methodically revealed through Lam's unique ability to make the reader meet his scientific pace. . . . The balancing act never stops."
-Newsweek

"There's no information like inside information, and Lam puts his to good use. . . . [His] fiction strikes a balance between clinical and emotional detail. . . . [An] impressive first book, by all appearances."
-The Ottawa Citizen

"If you want to know what a person must go through to become a practicing physician in a Canadian hospital, reading this riveting collection will give you a better picture than if you pored over a truckload of treatises on public health."
-Calgary Herald

"A searing, perfectly paced set of linked stories. . . . Tender insight into the fascinating emotional and social implications of a career that is, inherently, so much more than a job."
-Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Vincent Lam crafts sentences that veteran writers will covet. His fresh and stunning talent will satisfy all readers who hunger for powerful stories."
-Wayson Choy, author of All That Matters