Urgent Calls from Distant Places - by Marc-David Munk (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

In 2008, a young doctor set out for Kenya to volunteer with the famed AMREF East African Flying Doctors Service. An emergency physician looking to make a difference, Marc-David Munk flew dozens of missions as a flight surgeon to eleven East African countries, including war-torn Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. From his unarmed air ambulance, Munk and his team treated patients suffering with severe trauma, possible Ebola hemorrhagic fever, elephantiasis, malaria, and gunshot wounds. The crew dodged corrupt officials; landed their planes on unlit grass strips, after first scaring away livestock; were threatened by al-Shabaab jihadis, navigated war zones; and clandestinely treated a U.S military serviceman.

They also experienced some of the most beautiful parts of Africa and met the incredible people who live there. The tight-knit crew was passionate about saving lives despite the risks inherent in flights across war zones.

In Urgent Calls from Distant Places, the missions described are real and compelling. Readers will meet sick NGO workers in Somalia, malnourished Ugandan soldiers, suicidal teenagers, violent cow rustlers, American special forces, albino children murdered for their body parts, and even 19th-century explorers David Livingstone and Henry Stanley. Each chapter details the medical challenges of the mission but also explores the greater philosophical questions raised by treating patients in East Africa: African history, the impact of colonialism, communism, religion, terrorism, and war. Munk examines the unique histories and politics of the eleven countries he visits.

Urgent Calls is the story of the doctors, nurses, and pilots who tackled complex and dangerous missions to save lives. The book also bears witness to the author's moral development as a healer and as a human. Urgent Calls takes readers to the wild beauty of East Africa and embraces the challenges of healing patients with humility, gratitude, and hope... one life at a time.

Review Quotes

Best travel book, 2024 Indiereader Discovery Awards.

"...with succinct and beautifully crafted prose. Urgent Calls from Distant Places is an inspiring and deeply moving book.."

Category finalist, best memoir, 2024 Eric Hoffer Award.

Quarter-finalist, best nonfiction book, 2024 Publisher's Weekly Booklife Awards.

"Munk evokes the chaos and flurry of Africa's larger cities alongside the desolation of desert landscapes, all in expert prose that smoothly transports readers into another world. He renders accident scenes in raw, sometimes disturbing spaces, an echo of the tragedies he witnessed during his time abroad, but just as powerful are his reflections on hard-won healings...Munk's ability to draw out the tender moments of his experiences and juxtapose them with the stark reality of his medical work in often-dire circumstances lends this memoir originality and magnetism."

"An enthralling portrait of high-wire emergency care performed under the most trying circumstances." "Our Verdict: Get It!"

Kirkus Reviews

"an absolute home run. One of the best books I have read by a physician writer ever...Wow...just pure wowness."

Dr. Louis Profeta: author of bestselling The Patient in Room Nine Says He's God.

"...eye-opening insight into the longstanding effects of colonialism on East Africa, and one doctor's profound journey of self-discovery and what it means to humble oneself in the service of others. Marc-David Munk brings the East African Flying Doctors to life in his thrilling and insightful memoir, Urgent Calls from Distant Places. An outstanding read! I highly recommend."

Dr. Jay Wellons: author of All That Moves Us (voted one of the best books of 2022 by The New Yorker and Publishers Weekly.)

"Urgent Calls From Distance Places is not only a powerful and dramatic portrait of medical relief work in rural Africa, it's a deeply-felt and utterly accurate critique of the cruel moral failings of American healthcare as well. Munk is seeking the essential in medicine regardless of where one is in the world, and approaches his story with humility, a synthetic intelligence, wisdom, and an ultimately affirming reverence."

Dr. Frank Huyler: author of The Blood of Strangers, and White Hot Light