Product Details
Simon & Schuster, February 2010
Trade Paperback, 320 pages
ISBN-10: 1416556117
ISBN-13: 9781416556114
Description
OXYGEN opens with Marie Heaton, an anaesthesiologist at the height of her medical career, facing a nightmarish operating room disaster that ends a child's life and launches a tangled malpractice suit. Marie's best friend, colleague and former lover, Joe Hillary, becomes her closest confidante as she twists through depositions, accusations and a remorseful preoccupation with the mother of the dead child.
A quieter crisis is simultaneously unfolding within Marie's family. Her aging father is losing his sight and approaching an awkward dependency on Marie and her sister, Lori. But Lori has taken a more traditional path than Marie, and is busy raising a family. Although she has been estranged from him for decades, the ultimate responsibility for their father's care is falling on Marie. As her carefully structured life begins to shatter, Marie confronts questions of love and betrayal, family bonds, and the price of her own choices. Set against the natural splendour of Seattle, and inside the closed vaults of hospital operating rooms, OXYGEN climaxes in a final twist that is as heartrending as it is redeeming.
A quieter crisis is simultaneously unfolding within Marie's family. Her aging father is losing his sight and approaching an awkward dependency on Marie and her sister, Lori. But Lori has taken a more traditional path than Marie, and is busy raising a family. Although she has been estranged from him for decades, the ultimate responsibility for their father's care is falling on Marie. As her carefully structured life begins to shatter, Marie confronts questions of love and betrayal, family bonds, and the price of her own choices. Set against the natural splendour of Seattle, and inside the closed vaults of hospital operating rooms, OXYGEN climaxes in a final twist that is as heartrending as it is redeeming.
Read more:
Browse Inside Oxygen"In Oxygen, Carol Cassella's taut novel, Dr. Marie Heaton, an assured anesthesiologist at the top of her game, is forced to face the personal and professional fallout from an operating room disaster. Marie finds herself on the losing end of dollars-and-cents medicine in a malpractice suit, questioning herself, her skills, her colleagues, and her life choices. I couldn't wait to race to the end to see how her story played out, and I wasn't disappointed."
-- Lalita Tademy, author of Cane River
"A subtle, compelling plot that twists and twists again. This quickly becomes a book you cannot put down."
-- The Dallas Morning News
"A finely crafted mystery, as well as a sparkling literary work."
-- THE DENVER POST
"Like her protagonist, Carol Cassella has the heart of a poet and the mind of a physician; the result is a striking meditation on the complexities of love, the fragile miracle that is the human body and the burdens and blessings of being a healer."
-- Stephanie Kallos, author of Broken for You
"More than just an assured debut novel, this book is a tour de force, as emotionally involving as it is intelligent. Carol Cassella writes with the clarity and precision that are the hallmarks of her other profession....The fine, sharp details of her portrait of a gifted doctor facing a devastating crisis will stay with you long after the book is closed."
-- Susan Wiggs, author of Fireside and Just Breathe
" A startling plot twist, combined with Cassella's first-hand understanding of our ailing healthcare system, makes this involving debut just what the doctor ordered."
-- PEOPLE
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, May 9, 2010
...tribute to her, there wasn’t much else to it,” Lozano said. For May, club members have selected “Oxygen” by Carol Cassella, a book about an anesthesiologist who loses a patient while he is under her care. Lozano said belonging to a ...
Medford Mail Tribune, October 4, 2009
...fiction finalists was dominated by Bainbridge Islanders: Evison for 'All About Lulu,' David Guterson for 'The Other,' and Carol Cassella for 'Oxygen.' 'It's a great honor,' Evison said. 'For someone who got a 1.9 GPA and dropped out of ...
Seattle Times, October 3, 2009
...fiction finalists was dominated by Bainbridge Islanders: Evison for 'All About Lulu,' David Guterson for 'The Other' and Carol Cassella for 'Oxygen.' 'It's a great honor,' Evison said. 'For someone who got a 1.9 GPA and dropped out of ...
Kitsap Sun, October 2, 2009
...fiction finalists was dominated by Bainbridge Islanders: Evison for All About Lulu, David Guterson for The Other, and Carol Cassella for Oxygen. Its a great honor, Evison said. For someone who got a 1.9 GPA and dropped out of college, it ...
The Olympian, October 1, 2009
...fiction finalists was dominated by Bainbridge Islanders: Evison for 'All About Lulu,' David Guterson for 'The Other,' and Carol Cassella for 'Oxygen.' 'It's a great honor,' Evison said. 'For someone who got a 1.9 GPA and dropped out of ...
