A self-conscious medical student writes a second person account of his first code blue. As his patient dies, he reflects on the“Performance that permeates the entire profession,” the tension between role and authenticity, and the relationship between self-consciousness and suffering.

A subclinically autistic boy—precocious, detached, and fascinated with flight—grows up to face history as an investment banker in Manhattan at the turn of the century.

A burned-out American surgeon, buried alive during a Haitian earthquake, seeks meaning—and salvation—in his Creole translator’s mystical ramblings.