The Angina Monologues by Rosamund Kendal is her second novel(her first being ‘The Karma Suture’) depicting the lives of female doctors doing their first year year of community service in the rural parts of South Africa.
The story tells us of the lives of three female doctors finding love, courage and compassion as they do their residency at a rural hospital.
Pampered, spoilt Rachel struggles to establish her independence and learns to love across the cultural divide. Conservative, beautiful Seema struggles to end a relationship that has become increasingly abusive. And street-savvy Nomsa finally learns to accept a past she has spent a lifetime denying.
I really enjoyed this book, as much as I did her first one and it shows the state of rural hospitals in the ‘third world’ How AIDS is still a ‘silent death’ and how with compassion much can be overcome.
I urge you to read this book, if only for the ‘seeing’ what it is like in hospitals. I know I would not be able to be a doctor, but have huge respect for those that are and the work that they do.