"A thousand splendid suns" by Khaled Hosseini

After "The kite runner" his second novel. Again, it is set in Afghanistan and follows the protagonists through times of peace and, mostly, of war and terror. As his début, this book is full of tragedy and it seems that human suffering can be prolonged indefinitely. This time it's not the children of Afghanistan suffering the most, but its women. As if living through war and occupation wasn't enough, women have to endure not only the discrimination by strict Islamic rules, especially under the Taliban, but also the domestic violence that is hidden behind closed doors. As the reader we can see how a young girl full of hope and ambition is broken by forced marriage, or by the bombs killing her loved ones.

One can not put this book down easily. It is intense, shocking, infuriating and immensely sad. Whatever happy ending there might be at last, it comes at too high a price to pay.

Whether or not this book is better than the previous one is a matter of debate. Hosseini is a master story-teller and both books will take you hostage until the last page. Emotionally you are in for a beating, but at the end it is all worth it, because his stories show us a part of the world today that we cannot easily perceive and that is not well-represented by the breaking-news on CNN. They add the personal, human dimension we all need to fully understand what is happening out there.

"House of God" by Samuel Shem

I didn't finish this one. I guess the book was quite novel when it came out in the 70's and it probably still is a must-read for everyone interested in joining the medical profession. It is funny and easy to read and full of characters one can probably find in every hospital. First of all of course the protagonists of the book, the interns, full of ideals and textbook knowledge, unaware of what practicing medicine is actually about. "Turf and surf". The book comes with a glossary for all the acronyms, hospital slang and technical terms used. GOMER is one of the most frequently used. It basically refers to the largest population among the patients. Old and immobilised, senile and fragile, but hanging on to life with a force as if immune to death - while the young patients are the ones actually dying.

Besides the interns there are the residents such as "the fat man" - the cynical genius - who deeply cares about his patients and his profession, but who surrounds himself with a wall that protects him against the daily tragadies taking place around him. He is full of wisdom that he hands out to the interns in form of RULES. He believes that the best a doctor can do is to NOT treat the patients.

There is also the over-ambitious resident. She wants to do ALL the treatments there are and is thus the exact opposite of the fat man. She is bitter and lonely, unable to let things just go, she doesn't have a live outside the hospital.

Of course there is a tight hierarchy all the up to the head of the clinic.

Even though the characters are funny and the dialogues witty, there is no real story. The only development is the experience the interns gain as they pass through all the different stations in the hospital. Of course there is a lot of sex, too.

So, to sum this up, I can see why the book has become a best-seller. It gives a more realistic insight into hospital live than those idealised TV series, where doctors are super-human heroes whose only interest is to cure the sick. On top of that it is an entertaining read.