The Price of Compassion

A life-altering decision made by a surgeon while treating victims of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake and subsequent devastating fire haunts him in this moving novel. A talented athlete with a curious intellect, Tom Justice is from North Platte, Nebr., where he studied his grandmother’s natural healing remedies. His academic brilliance lands him at prestigious Johns Hopkins University, where he becomes a gifted surgeon. Tom helps out a medical school friend at San Francisco’s Chinatown Free Clinic, intending to return to a highly coveted Hopkins position; however, he remains at the clinic and becomes a bulwark against discrimination in health care and a portrait of courage in the face of racism. While working on victims after the earthquake, Tom is asked to assist with the critically injured using a controversial medical protocol; afterward, he is shattered emotionally and physically, and unable to operate. He leaves the city and Katherine Firestone, the woman he loves, to seek treatment, but is arrested for a murder committed after the earthquake and returned to San Francisco. The murder trial provides a vivid, alternating timeline of Tom’s life, as well as a moral dilemma to consider. This excellent story, with well-researched historical detail, is a profile of resilience in the face of vast tragedy. [em](BookLife) [/em]