Rating: 
Summary: doctors facing overwhelming odds carry on
Review: A highly graphic and very well written account of physicians carrying on the treatment of patients under fire and under the most difficult and stressful conditions during the largely successful genocidal attack and extermination of non-Serbs by the Bosnian Serbs in Srebrenica and eastern Bosnia during the Bosnian war of the 1990's. Sherri Fink' account is largely a dispassionate depiction that puts the readers on the scene and in the trenches, as it were.
Rating:
Summary: Grace under Pressure
Review: I am only half way through the book. It is
very well written. Sheri Fink has the ability
to use just the right words to convey the
tension, anxiety, chaos and trajedy in these
dismal circumstances. The attention to detail, psychological insight,
and reserved language, leaves a deep and
sorrowful impression of true heroism in a
man-made hell. The story of the life and death of these medical heroes
and their war patients surpasses journalism and
enters biblical tones. Very impressive! Squiggles
Rating:
Summary: Grace under Pressure
Review: I am only half way through the book. It is
very well written. Sheri Fink has the ability
to use just the right words to convey the
tension, anxiety, chaos and trajedy in these
dismal circumstances. The attention to detail, psychological insight,
and reserved language, leaves a deep and
sorrowful impression of true heroism in a
man-made hell. The story of the life and death of these medical heroes
and their war patients surpasses journalism and
enters biblical tones. Very impressive! Squiggles
Rating: 
Summary: More war than hospital
Review: I bought this book because the blurb talked about "moral quandries of practicing medicine in a war zone". I wanted to explore how physicians and hospitals make decisions and provide treatment/care during war. Instead, much of the book focuses on Bosnian history and the recent war. While the book was interesting and well-written, it was not exactly what I sought.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Narrative Skill
Review: I don't think I really understood what the war in Bosnia was all about before reading Dr. Sheri Fink's fabulous new book. She has a marvelous narrative gift. This book reads like a compelling screenplay, yet is marvelously researched and documented. As Chris Hedges wrote in his glowing review in the December 22, 2003 New York Times, Dr. Fink dramatically tells the story of the war by focusing on a small group of brave young doctors trapped in the beseiged city of Srebrenica with about 50,000 civilians. Without access to supplies, equipment and even electricity, we struggle along with them to deal with the frustrations, ethical dilemmas, rivalries and romances of their lives, while the larger picture of the war, the shocking failure of the UN and the West to intervene, plays out. The targeting of medical aid workers in Iraq (Dr. Fink worked there recently, I have read) takes on new meaning after reading her book and seeing how aid is often another (albeit deplorable) weapon of war. This book deserves wide notice.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Narrative Skill
Review: I don't think I really understood what the war in Bosnia was all about before reading Dr. Sheri Fink's fabulous new book. She has a marvelous narrative gift. This book reads like a compelling screenplay, yet is marvelously researched and documented. As Chris Hedges wrote in his glowing review in the December 22, 2003 New York Times, Dr. Fink dramatically tells the story of the war by focusing on a small group of brave young doctors trapped in the beseiged city of Srebrenica with about 50,000 civilians. Without access to supplies, equipment and even electricity, we struggle along with them to deal with the frustrations, ethical dilemmas, rivalries and romances of their lives, while the larger picture of the war, the shocking failure of the UN and the West to intervene, plays out. The targeting of medical aid workers in Iraq (Dr. Fink worked there recently, I have read) takes on new meaning after reading her book and seeing how aid is often another (albeit deplorable) weapon of war. This book deserves wide notice.
Rating:
Summary: I think this book changed my life
Review: I picked up War Hospital very casually. I hate to admit that I know very little of the Balkans other than a general feeling that it was war torn and had been for pretty much my whole life. This book changed this general apathy to the region in general and the peoples Croat, Serb, and Muslim in particular. I suggest every single person read this book--not only is it a great introduction to a small part of the Balkan conflicts, it is gripping and heart-rending. As I read it I felt chills-- sometimes I had to put it down. It also provides insite into the mindset of the international community who let 50,000 people fighting a better equipped enemy with only five doctors (none specifically trained in surgery). All in all-- a good read. I'm defintely going on to read more about the area and the conflict.
Rating:
Summary: I think this book changed my life
Review: I picked up War Hospital very casually. I hate to admit that I know very little of the Balkans other than a general feeling that it was war torn and had been for pretty much my whole life. This book changed this general apathy to the region in general and the peoples Croat, Serb, and Muslim in particular. I suggest every sing person read this book--not only is it a great introduction to a small part of the Balkan conflicts, it is gripping and heart-rending. As I read it I felt chills-- sometimes I had to put it down. It also provides incite into the mindset of the international community who let 50,000 people fighting a better equipped enemy with only five doctors (none specifically trained in surgery). All in all-- a good read. I'm defintely going on to read more about the area and the conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, deeply moving - Not to be missed
Review: There are so many good things to say about this wondeful book that it's hard to know where to begin. Sheri Fink's account of the heroic services of a handful of doctors in Srebrenica is an amazing and skillful blend of personal narrative, medical practice, ethical dilemma, and humanitarian concern. It is a rich story that kept me riveted long into the night more than once. I was deeply drawn into the lives of the doctors portrayed here. I rejoiced in their triumphs, and suffered in their pain. I remain humbled and inspired by their courage, the sacrifices they made, and the risks they took for no personal gain. I was also fascinated by the glimpse given into organizations such as Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres that so courageously operate on the edge of tragedy and terror, and who face choices of life and death every single day. I was entranced by the fascinating story of caring for tens of thousands of people in an isolated war zone, of doctors who went beyond their limits, beyond their lack of equipment, to save countless lives and be islands of care in a dark, tragic, turbulent time. And I was reminded of our human frailty when the burdens became too much for them. I was just as deeply drawn into the account of the tragedy in Bosnia as a whole, and I will never think about this war in the same way. Until now it was a confusing, remote war that I felt sorrow for, but in a distant abstract way. Now, I am touched deeply, and, in a small sense feel that I lived through it myself. It will always be a part of me. I could go on, but I won't :-) Go get the book; Sherri Fink has done a much better job than I could do here. This book is as rich as any novel I have read, and it is also completely true. I am amazed by this. Great job, and my thanks to the author for a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, deeply moving - Not to be missed
Review: There are so many good things to say about this wondeful book that it's hard to know where to begin. Sheri Fink's account of the heroic services of a handful of doctors in Srebrenica is an amazing and skillful blend of personal narrative, medical practice, ethical dilemma, and humanitarian concern. It is a rich story that kept me riveted long into the night more than once. I was deeply drawn into the lives of the doctors portrayed here. I rejoiced in their triumphs, and suffered in their pain. I remain humbled and inspired by their courage, the sacrifices they made, and the risks they took for no personal gain. I was also fascinated by the glimpse given into organizations such as Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres that so courageously operate on the edge of tragedy and terror, and who face choices of life and death every single day. I was entranced by the fascinating story of caring for tens of thousands of people in an isolated war zone, of doctors who went beyond their limits, beyond their lack of equipment, to save countless lives and be islands of care in a dark, tragic, turbulent time. And I was reminded of our human frailty when the burdens became too much for them. I was just as deeply drawn into the account of the tragedy in Bosnia as a whole, and I will never think about this war in the same way. Until now it was a confusing, remote war that I felt sorrow for, but in a distant abstract way. Now, I am touched deeply, and, in a small sense feel that I lived through it myself. It will always be a part of me. I could go on, but I won't :-) Go get the book; Sherri Fink has done a much better job than I could do here. This book is as rich as any novel I have read, and it is also completely true. I am amazed by this. Great job, and my thanks to the author for a wonderful read.
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