Saving a Stranger’s Life

The book to be seen on everybody’s beach towel, or open on the bedside table; For everyone who has gobbled up the latest Marian Keyes. To a world of readers who love the way Jodi Piccoult opens up other worlds. To all those who don’t want to give away their age but who still remember the way everyone was reading Spud, the latest Margie Orford, The Innocence of Roast Chicken…This is the book for you; Adam Kay popularised the humorous medical memoir with This is Going to Hurt, and Paul Kalanaithi’s When Breath Becomes Air had us weeping. Anne Biccard manages to combine the best of both.

Anne Biccard has worked as an emergency doctor in Johannesburg for more than 30 years. It is a job that is both terrifying and thrilling, where death can be outwitted by skill and quick thinking, and the pressure eased by dark humour.Anne Biccard has worked as an emergency doctor in Johannesburg for more than 30 years. It is a job that is both terrifying and thrilling, where death can be outwitted by skill and quick thinking, and the pressure eased by dark humour. The coronavirus, however, has added another dimension of fear. In this heartwarming and at times hilarious memoir she recounts some of the cases that have burst in through her doors, such as the woman who mistook her Dettol for beer and the man who tried to run down his cardiologist. There is sadness, too, as she remembers the patients who didn’t make it. Above all, she writes of the camaraderie and dogged determination of health workers holding fast in the face of the Covid-19 nightmare as they battle, every day, to save a stranger’s life.