Book Review
There are a growing number of physicians practicing in the United States and around the world who learned their profession in the same desert heat as the Hebrew patriarch, Abraham. They are graduates of the Medical School for International Health (MSIH), a fiercely innovative MD program at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel. A new book written by MSIH graduate Brian Neese, titled Living & Dying in the Fourth Year, chronicles his journey through the fourth and final year of this Israeli experiment.
Living and studying in Beer Sheva, where Jewish immigrants from Russia, Morocco, and Ethiopia live next to desert Arab Bedouins, forms the backdrop, and the final destination of Dr. Neese’s coming of age medical experience. Treating a Holocaust survivor in one hospital department, and an illegal Thai immigrant in another, are only some of his challenges. For Dr. Neese, as for so many students, the end of medical school is a time of confusion about where one belongs in the field of medicine. Reconciling his desires to travel, to experience different cultures, while still undergoing the painful transition from medical student to doctor is the heart of this story.
The great joy of Living & Dying in the Fourth Year is the travel and cultural immersion in Israel, as well as the U.S. and Africa, that readers experience right alongside this intrepid medical student. Read and enjoy the adventure!
For more information, please link to the official website: http://www.inthefourthyear.com/
