Rachael Mead

Back in training, they learned a couple of ways to work out if someone is truly dead to the world or if they're faking. One is to rub knuckles really hard against their sternum. It's not pleasant. The other is to press a pen into the bed of a nail cuticle. This is equally unpopular. Both the sternum rub and a nail-bed press will make anyone who's conscious flinch, even if they're determined — for whatever bizarre reason — to play possum. (p.14)

For paramedics Tash and Joel, a regular workday is like a supercut of the worst days of other people’s lives. They maintain their sanity through a friendship built on black humour, but as the constant exposure to trauma takes its toll, both, in different ways, must fight to preserve their mental health and relationships – even with one another. How much pressure can they handle, and what will happen when they finally crack?

With each chapter revolving around an emergency — some frightening, some moving, some simply funny — Rachael Mead digs beneath the surface of gore and grit to lay bare the humanity of emergency services personnel and their patients. This breathtaking novel reveals not only the trauma of a life lived on the front line of medicine, but also the essential, binding friendships that make such a life possible.