What Cannot Be Undone

True Stories of a Life in Medicine

Published by UNM Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

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About The Book

In his award-winning debut essay collection, What Cannot Be Undone, Walter M. Robinson shares surprising stories of illness and medicine that do not sacrifice hard truth for easy dramatics.

About The Author

Walter M. Robinson is a physician and a writer in Massachusetts. He is also a founding editor of EastOver Press and Cutleaf, an online literary journal. His essays have appeared in wildness, Months to Years, AGNI, Ruminate, The Sun, The Literary Review, and Harvard Review.

Product Details

  • Publisher: UNM Press (February 15, 2022)
  • Length: 160 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780826363718

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Raves and Reviews

A narrator readers can trust.--NewPages

Among physician authors, Dr. Robinson stands out for his ability to peel away the common clichés and tropes that populate so much of this literary genre, giving us unflinching insights into both the utterly mundane as well as the truly extraordinary experiences of physicians and patients alike.--Robert D. Truog MD, director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and coauthor of Talking with Patients and Families about Medical Error: A Guide for Education and Practice

Among physician authors, Dr. Robinson stands out for his ability to peel away the common clichés and tropes that populate so much of this literary genre, giving us unflinching insights into both the utterly mundane as well as the truly extraordinary experiences of physicians and patients alike.--Robert D. Truog MD, director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and coauthor of Talking with Patients and Families about Medical Error: A Guide for Education and Practice

What are the limits of the power of doctors, and of human beings? When should we intervene, and when it is our job to watch and to accept? Reading Walter Robinson is like getting stories from a brilliant war correspondent. He's our man on the ground, and the ground is medicine, life, and death. A gorgeous and important book.--Joan Wickersham, author of The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order and The News from Spain: Seven Variations on a Love Story

By showing us what is often hidden behind a white curtain, Dr. Walter Robinson explains how to reconcile ourselves, as others have, to sickness and to health. Everyone who has ever sweated it out in a hospital waiting room should read this astonishing book.--Susan Cheever, author of Home Before Dark

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More books in this series: River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize Series

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