Vincent Lam is an emergency doctor in Toronto who has drawn on his own personal experiences to create this “Grey’s Anatomy” style story set in the chaotic arena of Canadian medicine. The characters are realistic, their dilemmas make you laugh/gasp/recoil/ponder. This book won the Giller Prize in 2006.

An excerpt from Take All of Murphy chapter:

“What?” “I’m going to get it,” he shouted. No one turned to look, in the way that drunk people do not notice each other as being out of the ordinary.

“You’re all screwed up,” said Ming quietly. “Do you dream about your Murphy?”

“Me? You should have nightmares, the way you treat him.”

“Hello? Dead? Remember? I don’t have dreams, because I don;’t have hang-ups about stupid corpse.”

“You -”

“You what?” said Ming. “You don’t like that? Corpse? Piece of Murphy meat?”

“You’re such a –”

“Just say it. What am I? You want to say it. Call me a name, go ahead and relieve your repressed little self. Say it.”

“No. Let’s just stop. No.”

“Go for it, pick a name. Bitch? Witch? Name your name.”

“I didn’t say anything, you’re picking the words now.”

“You’re such a wimp, I have to call myself names just to clarify what you think of me,” said Ming.

Chen was pushing sideways through the falling dancers. He arrived in time to hear Ming say to Sri, “Just fuck off. See, I can say what I think.” She stalked off, weaving across the floor.