An oncologist reflects on her medical career, upbringing in Syria, and encounters with death in this memoir. Bitar grew up in Damascus, one of four children in a household that was both bookish and progressive by the standards of the time. Always an overachieving student, she knew early on that she “wanted to be a doctor with every inch of my being.” She attended medical school in Aleppo, where she met her future husband, Joseph, and moved to New York City in 1990 to continue her studies. She would eventually become an oncologist and relocate to the United States permanently. The author relates, with great emotional sensitivity, the beauty and despair involved in a profession that stands in such close proximity to death, a constant shadow: “Solid medical training is the beginning of any oncologist’s career. https://www.ranabitar.com/

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