First edition, 303 pages
English language
Published November 1988 by Doubleday.
No one could have told Lieutenant Kitty McCulley that this was what it meant to be a war nurse. No one could have told her that she was going to Vietnam, not to heal. but to ready her patients for the real pain. Not to alleviate suffering, but to become an object of contempt and misdirected lust. Not to try to save all victims, but to choose sides against people she thought she was there to help. No one could have told her. And it wouldn't have made any difference anyway.
When one of her patients, a revered holy man to the Vietnamese, gives Kitty an amulet with seemingly inexplicable powers, her world is changed forever. For the amules gives her the power to see the auras that emanate from those around her, and the auras allow her to separate the brave from the cowardly, the compassionate from the heartless, …
No one could have told Lieutenant Kitty McCulley that this was what it meant to be a war nurse. No one could have told her that she was going to Vietnam, not to heal. but to ready her patients for the real pain. Not to alleviate suffering, but to become an object of contempt and misdirected lust. Not to try to save all victims, but to choose sides against people she thought she was there to help. No one could have told her. And it wouldn't have made any difference anyway.
When one of her patients, a revered holy man to the Vietnamese, gives Kitty an amulet with seemingly inexplicable powers, her world is changed forever. For the amules gives her the power to see the auras that emanate from those around her, and the auras allow her to separate the brave from the cowardly, the compassionate from the heartless, and the truly dangerous from the frightened and confused It is a power she will need to save not only her sanity. but her life. Going against orders, Kitty convinces a helicopter pilot to help her take one of her orphan patients to safety, but when the chopper is shot down Kitty is left in the enemy-held jungle to survive by her wits and the power of the amulet.
With the child and a lone American soldier whose aura suggests almost total fear and potential danger. Kitty becomes witness to war at its most horrid...and its most human. Here in the jungle, war and its participants are laid bare and the most basic of truths are revealed to those with the power to see them.
A multifaceted, riveting reading experience. The Healer's War is one of the first novels to explore the life of a military nurse in Vietnam It is a powerful. evocative, and touching story that extends beyond the bounds of fantastic fiction to offer a richly satisfying novel of the human heart.
Actually a thrilling story about the cruelty of war and the people who wage it. However, I think the thing with the amulet and the aura rather irritating and even unnecessary.
