The Long Tale Of Tears And Smiles

By: Rana Bitar

The Long Tale Of Tears And Smiles chronicles an immigrant oncologist’s journey of triumphs and ‎struggles. From Damascus to NY.
The tale interweaves Bitar’s life stories with the stories of the patients she cared for. It reflects on ‎how bearing witness to their survival or death inspired her life and changed it and how their ‎anguish touched so closely on her own as she grieved the death of loved ones and watched the ‎devastation of destruction and loss caused by the civil war in Syria.

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Book Description

The Long Tale Of Tears And Smiles explores an immigrant oncologist’s journey of triumphs and struggles, from growing up in Syria, to the tragic death of her brother, to her experiences as a young immigrant medical student and trainee in the USA. Walk through her anguish witnessing the civil war in Syria and its devastation; see her become a practitioner, watching the field of oncology evolves throughout the years.

This narrative-driven case study interweaves the stories of the patients Bitar has cared for with her own life stories; it reflects on how her patients’ lives and the stories of their survival or death inspired and changed her life starting and raising a family. Each patient’s approach to illness and end-of-life is as unique as they are, and each person’s journey contains unexpected lessons.

In the space between life and death, Bitar’s profession thrives; and in that space, she can search for the meaning of her existence.

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