An electrifying, high-stakes literary thriller following three best friends since medical school and the twenty-five-year-old secret that now threatens to shatter their lives.
“Heart-pounding. Soul-wrenching. A psychological thriller that dives into the dark beauty and madness of medicine... It is Big, Little Lies meets Grey’s Anatomy in this delicious and satisfying mystery about friendship, love, and why we choose the work we do. Christie Watson has written a masterpiece.”—Kate Bowler
An exploration of moral ambiguity and what it really means to protect a life. Watson understands human flaws with empathy and insight. I've never read a novel before that combines such riveting accounts of frontline medicine, female friendship and family dynamics. Unique and compelling.― Elizabeth Day
An extraordinary book. Compelling and unsettling in equal measure - Christie Watson deftly weaves a tale that will linger long after you have put it down. ― John Sutherland
Intelligent, propulsive and disturbing - I couldn't put it down. The ethical dilemmas at the centre of the book will have readers asking themselves, again and again, what would I do? ― Nikki Smith
This book is utterly incredible in every way. I adored every page. Christie writes with a precision and grace that is true literary perfection. ― Emma Jane Unsworth
Propulsive, funny and filled with suspense, Watson's pacy thriller kept me turning the pages late into the right. You know you're in the hands of an expert. A masterclass of its genre ― Sarah Langford
Moral Injuries takes the reader into a world where medicine meets morality, and every choice has a cost. With page-turning twists, it explores friendship, betrayal and the decisions that define us ― Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall
Christie is Professor of Medical Humanities at UEA and worked as an NHS nurse for over twenty years. She has written five books, including her first novel Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, which won the Costa First Novel Award, and memoir, The Language of Kindness which was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. Christie is a contributor to The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph and TEDx, and her work has been translated into 23 languages and adapted for theatre.
Photo credit: Rebecca Reid
Moral Injuries book tour upcoming events listed here - more to come.
Christie Watson is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. She has previously published two novels: including the Costa First Novel Award winning Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away, and three non-fiction books: Quilt on Fire, The Courage to Care and Number One Bestseller The Language of Kindness. Her sixth book, Moral Injuries, is available to pre-order now. Click each title for more information.
An electrifying, high-stakes literary thriller following three best friends since medical school and the twenty-five-year-old secret that now threatens to shatter their lives.
“Heart-pounding. Soul-wrenching. A psychological thriller that dives into the dark beauty and madness of medicine... It is Big, Little Lies meets Grey’s Anatomy in this delicious and satisfying mystery about friendship, love, and why we choose the work we do. Christie Watson has written a masterpiece.”—Kate Bowler
An exploration of moral ambiguity and what it really means to protect a life. Watson understands human flaws with empathy and insight. I've never read a novel before that combines such riveting accounts of frontline medicine, female friendship and family dynamics. Unique and compelling.― Elizabeth Day
An extraordinary book. Compelling and unsettling in equal measure - Christie Watson deftly weaves a tale that will linger long after you have put it down. ― John Sutherland
Intelligent, propulsive and disturbing - I couldn't put it down. The ethical dilemmas at the centre of the book will have readers asking themselves, again and again, what would I do? ― Nikki Smith
This book is utterly incredible in every way. I adored every page. Christie writes with a precision and grace that is true literary perfection. ― Emma Jane Unsworth
Propulsive, funny and filled with suspense, Watson's pacy thriller kept me turning the pages late into the right. You know you're in the hands of an expert. A masterclass of its genre ― Sarah Langford
Moral Injuries takes the reader into a world where medicine meets morality, and every choice has a cost. With page-turning twists, it explores friendship, betrayal and the decisions that define us ― Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall
Christie Watson was a nurse for twenty years. Taking us from birth to death and from A&E to the mortuary, The Language of Kindness is an astonishing account of a profession defined by acts of care, compassion and kindness.
We watch Christie as she nurses a premature baby who has miraculously made it through the night, we stand by her side during her patient’s agonising heart-lung transplant, and we hold our breath as she washes the hair of a child fatally injured in a fire, attempting to remove the toxic smell of smoke before the grieving family arrive.
In our most extreme moments, when life is lived most intensely, Christie is with us. She is a guide, mentor and friend. And in these dark days of division and isolationism, she encourages us all to stretch out a hand.
Nurses have never been more important. We benefit from their expertise in our hospitals and beyond: in our schools, on our streets, in prisons, hospices and care homes. When we feel most alone, nurses remind us that we are not alone at all.
In The Courage to Care bestselling author Christie Watson reveals the remarkable extent of nurses' work. A community mental-health nurse choreographs support for a man suffering from severe depression. A teen with stab wounds is treated by the critical-care team; his school nurse visits and he drops the bravado. A pregnant woman loses frightening amounts of blood following a car accident; it is a military nurse who synchronises the emergency department into immaculate order and focus.
Christie makes a further discovery: that, time and again, it is patients and their families - including her own - who show exceptional strength in the most challenging times. We are all deserving of compassion, and as we share in each other's suffering, Christie Watson shows us how we can find courage too. The courage to care.
'Literary, gritty, joyful and very, very funny, reading Quilt on Fire is like hanging out with a best friend, one who knows you so well that she can see inside your soul... Virgina Woolf-sharp --' Stacey Duguid ― Sunday Telegraph
'A superb chronicle of midlife and the chaos of the perimenopause. Candid, humorous, insightful, deeply empathetic, inspiring and utterly necessary ― i Paper
'You don't have to be in midlife to appreciate this funny, real, empathetic memoir about the multitudes contained in every woman... You'll feel as if you've found a kindred spirit' ― Red
'A funny, frank and informative blend of personal writing, research and conversations with friends... [Watson's] descriptions of her failing body are vivid and unflinching... Passages are moving, humbling and written with beautiful detail' -- Marianne Power ― The Times
WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2011.
'Everything changed after Mama found Father lying on top of another woman.'
Blessing and her brother Ezikiel adore their larger-than-life father, their glamorous mother and their comfortable life in Lagos. But all that changes when their father leaves them for another woman.
Their mother is fired from her job at the Royal Imperial Hotel - only married women can work there - and soon they have to quit their air-conditioned apartment to go and live with their grandparents in a compound in the Niger Delta. Adapting to life with a poor countryside family is a shock beyond measure after their privileged upbringing in Lagos.
Told in Blessing's own beguiling voice, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away shows how some families can survive almost anything. At times hilarious, always poignant, occasionally tragic, it is peopled with characters you will never forget.
Elijah, seven years old, is covered in scars and has a history of disruptive behaviour. His adoptive mother Nikki believes that she and her husband Obi are strong enough to accept his difficulties - and that being white will not affect her ability to raise a black son.
Elijah's birth mother Deborah loves her son like the world has never known. Elijah thinks it's his fault they can't be together.
Each of them faces more challenges than they could have dreamed, but just as Elijah starts to settle in, a shocking event rocks their fragile peace and the result is devastating.
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