Carol Cassella

Carol Cassella

Anesthesiologist Carol Cassella writes about the collision of family and medical drama in Oxygen, her debut novel.
Following an operating room disaster, Dr. Marie Heaton faces a malpractice lawsuit. As she struggles to salvage her career and reputation, Marie must face hard truths about the path she's chosen, the bridges she's burned and the colleagues and superiors she's mistaken for friends. (booksense)… (more)

Carol Cassella

During the fragile moments of surgery, Seattle anesthesiologist and writer Carol Cassella is not only aware of the scientific intricacies of the human body, but more importantly, understands the emotional complexities patients and doctors face when entering an operating room. This intimate and professional perspective was reflected in her exquisite and critically acclaimed debut, Oxygen. A student of David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars, and former contributing medical writer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Fund, Cassella has vast and diverse experience. The range of Cassella's writing coupled with her knowledge as a doctor puts a unique stamp on her fiction. Dr. Marie Heaton is at the top of her anesthesiology career. Bustling from one surgery room to the next, Marie takes pride in her expert ability to safely move patients in and out of consciousness, and get them through difficult medical procedures with safety and comfort. However, when Marie is called into a routine surgery for a young girl, she never expects the surgery will take a turn for the worse and that a child will die on the operating room table.Quickly Marie is launched into a tangled and nightmarish malpractice suit that is accompanied by her own guilt and constant questioning of her medical abilities. Meanwhile her father’s health is failing, and to add even more complication, an old boyfriend tries to reignite their relationship. Feeling anxious and vulnerable about the potential demise of her career, Marie finds herself gasping for the oxygen that she so skillfully and carefully administers to her patients, trying to sustain her professional and personal life.
Oxygen is a true exploration of universal human hopes and frailties, and the murky boundary where science intersects with the soul. A blend of medical knowledge, the imperfection of humanity and science, suspense and the desire for vindication was widely received as a National Bestseller and a July ’08 Indie Next list pick when it was first published in hardcover last year.Join us to celebrate it's release in paperback!
Author site. (booksense)… (more)

Carol Wiley Cassella , Oxygen.



CAROL CASSELLA
OXYGEN

Bainbridge Island author Carol Cassella presents her riveting debut novel, a high stakes medical drama about an anesthesiologist at the height of her profession who confronts a malpractice suit and struggles to salvage her career amid questions of love and betrayal, family bonds, and the price of their own choices. Her novel climaxes in a final twist that is as heartrending as it is redeeming.

Our Mary G. writes: "This is an assured, nicely paced novel with really well-drawn characters and a likable narrator reminiscent of Barbara Kingsolver. Cassella is a wonderful addition to the constellation of Bainbridge authors."

A practicing anesthesiologist herself, Cassella also does freelance writing about global public health advocacy for the developing world. (booksense)… (more)