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Black flies

Shannon Burke

2008185 pagesabout 3–4 hours
2008
first published
  • 2008Soft Skull Press · 185 pages · ENGISBN 9781593761912
  • 2009Penguin Random House · ENGISBN 9781409076827
  • 2009Harvill Secker · 185 pages · ENGISBN 9781846552830
  • 2009Counterpoint Press · 192 pages · ENGISBN 9781593762544
  • 2009Penguin Random House · 192 pages · ENGISBN 9781409076834
  • 2010Charnwood · ENGISBN 9781444800579

*Black Flies* is the story of paramedic Ollie Cross and his first year on the job in mid-'90s New York. It is a ground's eye view of life on the streets: the shoot-outs, the bad cops, unhinged medics, the hopeless patients, the dark humor in bizarre circumstances, and one medic's struggle to balance his desire to help against his own growing callousness. It is the story of lives that hang in the balance, and of a single job with a misdiagnosed newborn that sends Cross and his partner into a life-changing struggle between good and evil.

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