杏吧原创

(published in US as Every Patient Tells a Story, Broadway, $25)

HERE鈥橲 hoping I never get a disease my doctor finds fascinating. These two collections of stories about rare diagnoses both have links to the TV series . Jonathan Edlow鈥檚 The Deadly Dinner Party is partly inspired by the writings of , whose tales of unusual illnesses gave rise to several of the show鈥檚 plots. Lisa Sanders, the author of Diagnosis, wrote a series of columns for The New York Times which also inspired the deliciously unpleasant Gregory House, MD.

Edlow鈥檚 collection of bite-sized essays about obscure infections, poisons and diseases 鈥� from infected piranha tank water to vitamin D intoxication 鈥� make an enjoyable and interesting book. The stories don鈥檛 flow, but they do add up to more than a list of anecdotes, giving an impression of a world packed with fascinating and bizarre ways of falling ill.

While rare conditions make for good stories, are they anything more than freak shows? Diagnosis dispels such suspicions by slotting its string of rarities into a wider context, offering up a profound view of how doctors think. Despite a lick of sentimentality in Sanders鈥檚 writing, it is a wonderful read: thoughtful and gripping, more real and more interesting than House. It analyses the ambiguity and uncertainty that doctors need to live with, and the psychological and technical problems that result. Sanders reminds us that 鈥渄octors are human beings鈥� prone to biases, distortions of perspective, and blind spots鈥�. Her thrilling stories tell of successes and failures, and their struggle to learn from both.