Carol Cassella Doctor, mother, and novelist

photo credit: Raymond Gendreau

Author Biography

Carol Cassella is a practicing anesthesiologist and novelist.
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Influences

As a mother (two sets of twins!) I would have to put my children on the top of the list of what influences my writing. Once I had children, everything else about my life and, indeed about the world, took on a more profound degree of meaning and vulnerability. I'm also very influenced by my work as a doctor. Being a physician allows me to be at least transiently close to people I would never otherwise meet. It has made me intimately aware of how quickly a life can be taken or saved.

OXYGEN by Carol Cassella

Date of Review:

Published Work:

Oxygen

Reviewer:

Bridget Booher

Source:

Duke University Alumni Magazine

Review Excerpt:

We put such faith in the tools of modern medicine. Clinical breakthroughs and sophisticated technology seduce us into thinking that whatever ails us can be taken care of with a dose of medicine or a surgical intervention. But in the opening pages of Carol Cassella's debut novel, Oxygen, we're reminded of the fragile hold we have on life.

Given her clear-eyed understanding of the medical profession, one hopes that like Gawande, she will provide us with further opportunities to peer into the mysterious and unpredictable nature of the human condition.