#39 in Biography & memoir
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
- 288
- Pages
- about 5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Complications” is a lucid, humane collection of essays in which surgeon Atul Gawande looks honestly at how doctors learn, err and decide. Its three sections, on fallibility, mystery and uncertainty, range from how a surgeon masters a new procedure to cases where software diagnoses better than people. The insider’s view is its great strength; some readers find it absorbing without being gripping, while others like that its separate chapters suit short sittings.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is a nonfiction book collection of essays written by the American surgeon Atul Gawande. Gawande wrote this during his general surgery residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital and was published in 2002 by Picador. The book is divided into three sections: Fallibility, Mystery, and Uncertainty, all going in depth into the problems physicians may face when practicing a variety of procedures in medicine. Each of these sections puts forth different challenges doctors must face that make them imperfect and errant, resulting in the inevitable occurrence of errors.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.6 across 72 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 33% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Biography & memoir average of 8.1. That is how 8.3 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.6 | 14 | 19% |
| Hardcover | 8.6 | 58 | 81% |
Frequently asked
How long is Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science?
It has 288 pages — shorter than 58% of the ranked books in Biography & memoir.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Biography & memoir — with scores between 8.1 and 8.4, closest to this book.
