An Amazonca Best Book of 2013 Top 100Editors PickA gorgeous debutJOSEPH BOYDEN author of Through Black Spruce and The OrendaAt the hospital in Blantyre Malawi Bryce is learning to predict the worst Racing heart infection probably malaria Hell send Iris for saline Shortness of breath TB Another patient rolled to the ward And the round swellings the rashes with dimpled centres the small rough patches on a boys foot HIV Iris will make him comfortable Theyll move onThen there will be sleeplessness rationed energy a censuring of hope the doctors disease Iris sees that one all the timeHenry Bryce has come to Blantyre to work off the grief he feels for his old life but he cant adjust to the hopelessness that surrounds him He relies increasingly upon Sister Iriss steady presence Yet its not until an accident brings them both to a village outpost that Bryce realizes the personal sacrifices Iris has made for her medical training or that Iris in turn comes to fathom the depth of Henrys lossThe Strength of Bone is the story of a Western doctor a Malawian nurse and the crises that push both of them to the brink of collapse With biting emotion and a pathological eye for detail novelist and medical doctor Lucie Wilk demonstrates how in a place where knowledge can frustrate as often as it heals true strength requires the flexibility to let goAdvance Praise for The Strength of BoneIn supple beautiful prose Lucie Wilk recounts a doctors struggle with technology and faith and with the mysteries of death and love The Strength of Bone is an extraordinary look at the clash of worldsANNABEL LYON author of The Golden Mean and The Sweet GirlLucie Wilk grew up in Toronto and completed her medical training in Vancouver Her short fiction has been nominated for the McClelland Stewart Journey Prize Anthology longlisted for a CBC Canada Writes literary prize and has appeared in Descant Prairie Fire and Shortfire Press She is working toward an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia She practices medicine and lives with her husband and two children in London UK