"...[a] haunting literary SF novel...original, surreal and extraordinary" --Publishers Weekly
"In The Healer [Michael Blumlein, M.D.] combines his insider's knowledge and unflappable descriptive style with fantastical elements from what could be the far future, for a compelling portrait of a man whose talent is simultaneously obsession, curse and transformative magic." --Locus
"The Healer is a landmark in its genre, for Michael Blumlein takes the literalised metaphors of science fiction to an entirely new place-the illness and the health of the human body. His novel is a study of power, but not mere political or technological power: what it wonderfully imagines and examines is the healer's power, the gift of curing, and the responsibility and the mystery of that gift. Quietly told and passionately felt, this is a book of real and rare originality." --Ursula K. Le Guin, Hugo & Nebula award-winning author of Gifts and Changing Planes
"The Healer is one of those special works of art that has the power to change forever your view of the world and your own bodily reality. A disturbing, beautiful, unforgettable novel." --Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Years of Rice and Salt and Forty Signs of Rain
The Healer, ironically named "Payne," is a member of a minority offshoot of humanity called Grotesques, or Tesques, who are distinguished by a cranial deformity and an extra orifice in their chests. A small percentage of Tesques have the ability to effect phenomenal healings, which makes them a valuable commodity in their world. Sadly, such gifted healers live a life somewhere between that of a possession and a slave. Payne is unusual in that he is seemingly unaffected by the mysterious burnout (called "The Drain") that all other healers experience. The novel follows his journey across the strange landscape of his world in a search for an acceptance he may never find. Along the way, we move from the outskirts of society, to an isolated mining camp, to a metropolis dedicated to gambling and vice, to a secret government compound where the most dangerous of healings are performed. In the climactic scene, reality meets mythology, and Payne experiences a transformation that will forever alter the balance between Tesques and humans. Blumlein brings his experience as a practicing physician to bear in this novel, which subtly and beautifully examines the ways in which society both reveres and fears members of the medical profession. In the vein of such authors as Jonathan Lethem and Jonathan Carroll, The Healer is literate, philosophical, entertaining, moving and original.
Michael Blumlein, M.D. has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award and twice for the Bram Stoker Award. The author of X,Y (recently made into a movie) and The Movement of Mountains, his collection The Brains of Rats won the ReaderCon Award for Best Collection. A frequent contributor to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Interzone, his short stories have been anthologized many times, including several appearances in the prestigious The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Annual Collection and The Year's Best Science Fiction. He has also written for the stage and for film. In addition to writing, Dr. Blumlein practices and teaches medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.
Description:
"...[a] haunting literary SF novel...original, surreal and extraordinary" --Publishers Weekly
"In The Healer [Michael Blumlein, M.D.] combines his insider's knowledge and unflappable descriptive style with fantastical elements from what could be the far future, for a compelling portrait of a man whose talent is simultaneously obsession, curse and transformative magic." --Locus
"The Healer is a landmark in its genre, for Michael Blumlein takes the literalised metaphors of science fiction to an entirely new place-the illness and the health of the human body. His novel is a study of power, but not mere political or technological power: what it wonderfully imagines and examines is the healer's power, the gift of curing, and the responsibility and the mystery of that gift. Quietly told and passionately felt, this is a book of real and rare originality." --Ursula K. Le Guin, Hugo & Nebula award-winning author of Gifts and Changing Planes
"The Healer is one of those special works of art that has the power to change forever your view of the world and your own bodily reality. A disturbing, beautiful, unforgettable novel." --Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Years of Rice and Salt and Forty Signs of Rain
The Healer, ironically named "Payne," is a member of a minority offshoot of humanity called Grotesques, or Tesques, who are distinguished by a cranial deformity and an extra orifice in their chests. A small percentage of Tesques have the ability to effect phenomenal healings, which makes them a valuable commodity in their world. Sadly, such gifted healers live a life somewhere between that of a possession and a slave.
Payne is unusual in that he is seemingly unaffected by the mysterious burnout (called "The Drain") that all other healers experience. The novel follows his journey across the strange landscape of his world in a search for an acceptance he may never find. Along the way, we move from the outskirts of society, to an isolated mining camp, to a metropolis dedicated to gambling and vice, to a secret government compound where the most dangerous of healings are performed. In the climactic scene, reality meets mythology, and Payne experiences a transformation that will forever alter the balance between Tesques and humans.
Blumlein brings his experience as a practicing physician to bear in this novel, which subtly and beautifully examines the ways in which society both reveres and fears members of the medical profession. In the vein of such authors as Jonathan Lethem and Jonathan Carroll, The Healer is literate, philosophical, entertaining, moving and original.
Michael Blumlein, M.D. has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award and twice for the Bram Stoker Award. The author of X,Y (recently made into a movie) and The Movement of Mountains, his collection The Brains of Rats won the ReaderCon Award for Best Collection. A frequent contributor to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Interzone, his short stories have been anthologized many times, including several appearances in the prestigious The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Annual Collection and The Year's Best Science Fiction. He has also written for the stage and for film. In addition to writing, Dr. Blumlein practices and teaches medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.