By Sue Guiney

Out of the Ruins

Novel

Out of the Ruins be­gins with one Cam­bod­ian doc­tor’s frus­tra­tion over how the poor women in his coun­try are dying need­lessly. He reaches out to friends to help him cre­ate a new clinic for the local vil­lages around Siem Reap’s world fam­ous temples, and they an­swer his call.

Irish Dr Di­ar­muid ar­rives with his Eng­lish as­sist­ant, Dr Gemma, and Ca­na­dian ad­min­is­trator Mr Fred. To­gether they cre­ate a place where the poor women of Cam­bodia can find the basic care that so much of the world has long since taken for gran­ted.

The young and am­bi­tious Cam­bod­ian nurse Srey acts as in­ter­preter and door­way into the trust of the local com­munity, but her ideal­ised view of west­ern medi­cine will be ser­i­ously shaken.

Tra­di­tion col­lides with sci­ence as East meets West, and though the doc­tors are all too eager to help, they have much to learn about their own per­sonal demons in this des­per­ate and se­duct­ive so­ci­ety.