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Breathtaking
- Narrated by: Rachel Clarke
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
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Breathtaking
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Summary
"Rachel takes the worst life can throw at us and shows us the beauty in it." (Adam Kay, author of This Is Going to Hurt)
Included in Best Books to read in 2021 pieces in the Sunday Times, Guardian, Financial Times, New Stateman, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Evening Standard, The Tablet, Sunday Business Post, Irish Times, iPaper and Stylist Online.
How does it feel to confront a pandemic from the inside, one patient at a time? To bridge the gulf between a perilously unwell patient in quarantine and their distraught family outside? To be uncertain whether the protective equipment you wear fits the science or the size of the government stockpile? To strive your utmost to maintain your humanity even while barricaded behind visors and masks?
Rachel is a palliative care doctor who looked after some of the most gravely unwell patients on the COVID-19 wards of her hospital. Amid the tensions, fatigue and rising death toll, she witnessed the courage of patients and NHS staff alike in conditions of unprecedented adversity. For all the bleakness and fear, she found that moments that could stop you in your tracks abounded. People who rose to their best, upon facing the worst, as a microbe laid waste to the population.
Her new book, Breathtaking, is an unflinching insider's account of medicine in the time of coronavirus. Drawing on testimony from nursing, acute and intensive care colleagues - as well as, crucially, her patients - Clarke argues that this age of contagion has inspired a profound attentiveness to - and gratitude for - what matters most in life.
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Critic reviews
If you're wondering whether to turn the page and read it, my message is simple: please do (Michael Rosen)
What listeners say about Breathtaking
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- kathy
- 18-03-24
made it real
I had to keep reminding myself this was real life and I had lived through it. it made me more angry that the government will not pay the people who put their lives on the line a livable wage!
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- Amazon Customer
- 17-04-24
The truth at last
My daughter worked in a busy A&E and we sat every night listening to the lies being told by the government . This book at last tells the doctors and nurses side of the story . This should be compulsory reading .
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- G Matthews
- 14-05-22
Everyone should listen to this.
An amazing and moving book. Will certainly listen again. An absolutely honest account of the pandemic and state of the NHS.
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- Christina
- 29-02-24
Breathtaking
This was a story which needed to be told, and Rachel Clarke does this beautifully and honestly. All medical procedures and equipment featured in the narrative are explained clearly enabling the reader to grasp with understanding the situations described in the book. The fact that the writer is also the narrator gives a depth of reality to what is being told. The book is not for everyone due to the harrowing nature of the subject matter, but having read it I now feel better informed about what was happening within the NHS during the pandemic, and feel a certain empathy with the characters featured in the book.
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- Mary s
- 28-01-21
Support
I brought this book this morning to support the doctor who wrote it, I got 20 mins in had to turn it off was in tears, I suggest the government pays the author and sends this to everyone in uk. Hope it wakes folk up who don’t wear mask or social distances. All I can say is god bless the NHS
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5 people found this helpful
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- Jimsmummy
- 07-03-21
So moving and terrifying
Wonderful book it was over too quickly unlike the pandemic. Highlighting the suffering of NHS workers and families who have lost loved ones from Covid 19. I suspect the update to this book with updated figures will be jaw dropping. I hope we can all work together to help those who have suffered the most
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3 people found this helpful
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- Miss
- 02-02-21
Literally Breathtaking...
It feels that to hear and understand this story of the NHS is to somehow be able to show respect and gratitude.
The author shares her story in such a measured way. Just amazing. Thank you will never be enough.
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5 people found this helpful
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- ST
- 16-11-21
Tough reality
An emotional and accessible view into a world, thankfully unseen. Tears, gratitude, disgust and awe.
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- Kath
- 11-01-22
Beautifully written and read with compassion
Beautifully written and read with compassion. This is a hard yet essential listen, thank you for sharing your perspective Rachel and the narratives of others from the early days of the pandemic with such honesty, so glad I listened to this.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-03-24
Breathtaking
I wanted to read the book after seeing the itv series. It’s beautifully written and beautifully read
Inspiring, sad, powerful and honest eye witness experience. Something most of us won’t face.
Thank you
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