Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village [Hardcover]

Dr. James Maskalyk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 26, 2009

An inspiring story of one doctor’s struggle in a war-torn village in the heart of Sudan

In 2007, James Maskalyk, newly recruited by Doctors Without Borders, set out for the contested border town of Abyei, Sudan. An emergency physician drawn to the ravaged parts of the world, Maskalyk spent six months treating malnourished children, coping with a measles epidemic, watching for war, and struggling to meet overwhelming needs with few resources.

Six Months in Sudan began as a blog that Maskalyk wrote from his hut in Sudan in an attempt to bring his family and friends closer to his experiences on the medical front line of one of the poorest and most fragile places on earth. It is the story of the doctors, nurses, and countless volunteers who leave their homes behind to ease the suffering of others, and it is the story of the people of Abyei, who endure its hardship because it is the only home they have.

A memoir of volunteerism that recalls Three Cups of Tea, Six Months in Sudan is written with humanity, conviction, great hope, and piercing insight. It introduces us to a world beyond our own imagining and demonstrates how we all can make a difference.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When he signed up to do a stint with Médecins Sans Frontières in 2006, Maskalyk, currently assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Toronto, volunteered to go anywhere the organization wanted to send him, writing, No wife, no kids, no house, no debt, no one waiting for me to get back. He was posted in Abyei, an oil-rich region set squarely on the demarcation between north and south Sudan, where one of the bloodiest civil wars in Africa had recently ended. In a makeshift hospital, he saw dozens of sick people, most suffering—even dying—from treatable illnesses. In his six months of service, Maskalyk oversaw a measles outbreak and treated tuberculosis patients, mothers fatally injured during childbirth and countless malnourished children. Even if Maskalyk frustrates in his apolitical stance, refusing to ask why so many are suffering and merely lamenting the fact, he provides a raw and deeply felt account of his time in Sudan. (June)
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Review

“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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau (May 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385526512
• ISBN-13: 978-0385526517
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking and an inspiration, February 6, 2010

By 

Tammie L. Nelson (Greenwood, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village (Hardcover)

Over winter break, I read a book entitled Six Months in Sudan, by Dr. James Maskalyk. I am a Field Partner of Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), and was introduced to this book via Dr. Maskalyk's blog on their site. I am grateful that I learned of it, and that I had the opportunity to read through the memoirs of this caring physician.

Six Months in Sudan isn't a book written in a formal style with proper grammer and formatting throughout. Instead, it contains the honest memoirs of a Canadian emergency medicine physician who recorded his thoughts and experiences of serving in Sudan while they were still fresh and raw in his mind. It is a collection of memories, experiences, and emotions. He wrote while angry, depressed, anxious, and grieving. He discusses intimate moments and shocking injuries. He holds nothing back as he bares even his most private thoughts prior to his departure and during his term. He also discusses the isolation that he felt upon his return. This is, perhaps, the most honest book I've ever read.

It isn't a difficult read, and it is the kind of book that you don't want to put down once you've begun reading. If you're interested in medicine, public health, international affairs, or policy, you'll definitely appreciate this book. Even if you're not, you probably will. Beware, however, as this book is not edited for content that may make you realize that you take the comforts of your life for granted. It made me realize that I do so, and that the hardships I experience really are petty as compared to those of others throughout the world.

When you purchase Six Months in Sudan, Dr. Maskalyk donates a portion of the proceeds to Doctors without Borders and to a fund that will help students from Abyei, Sudan to access education, if the schools there are ever rebuilt.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up Close Look at a Life Most of us Can't Imagine, June 27, 2009

By 

Elizabeth Howell (Burlington, Vermont) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village (Hardcover)

Many thanks to Dr. Maskalyk for going to Sudan and for writing about it. This is a moving and troubling account of life without the many safety nets that hold us. Clean water, reliable electricity, access to medical care, more food than we need, education--these are all sorely lacking in Abyei. Dr. Maskalyk shares what he sees and experiences, and by omission, how troubling what he witnesses is to his soul. I couldn't put this book down and am so grateful for the opportunity to learn about a part of the world I knew very little about.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating, September 26, 2009

By 

Douglas A. Decker "ddmpls" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village (Kindle Edition)

This book took me on a daily basis to somewhere I could never visit, facing hardships and losses that would overwhelm me. But, he did so in an honest way that forced me ,in my comfortable existence, to face and embrace the daily struggles of those in Sudan.
Dr. James and his team, and some Sudanese patients felt like friends by the end of the book.