Vincent Lam was born in London, Ontario and raised in Ottawa. His parents are Chinese from Vietnam. Dr. Lam graduated from the University of Toronto and currently works as an emergency physician in Toronto. He is also a lecturer with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. As a writer, Lam has published non-fiction in several Canadian newspapers and magazines including Toronto Life, and the Globe and Mail. He has also written a brief biography of Canadian politician and social reformer Tommy Douglas published in Penguin Canada’s Extraordinary Canadians series. With Dr. Colin Lee he authored The Flu Pandemic and You: A Canadian Guide (Doubleday Canada, 2006).
Fiction (Short stories)
Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures: Stories
[Toronto]: Doubleday Canada, 2006.
PS8623 .A467 B5 2006
Abridged Audiobook also available
Audio Visual PS8623 .A467 B5 2007
Publisher’s Synopsis
… Vincent Lam holds in delicate and skilful tension black humour, investigations of both common and extraordinary moral dilemmas, and a sometimes shockingly realistic portrait of today’s medical profession. He brings to vivid life the disparate but interdependent worlds of school and home, heartbreaking young love, and life-altering fear in stories that introduce us to Ming, Fitz, Chen, and Sri, young medical students and doctors in Toronto.
Awards and Honours
2006 Giller Prize (Winner)
2007 Story Prize (Finalist)
Fiction
The Headmaster’s Wager
Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2012.
PS8623 .A467 H42 2012
Publisher’s Synopsis
… highly suspenseful, and deeply affecting novel set against the turmoil of the Vietnam War.
Awards and Honours
2012 Governor General’s Literary Award–English language, Fiction (Finalist)
2013 Commonwealth Book Prize (Finalist)
Links
Vincent Lam personal website
Publisher Random House of Canada (owner of Doubelday)
Reading guide to Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
Vincent Lam on The Headmaster’s Wager, part of CBC Radio One’s The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers, episode “Vincent Lam” first broadcast May 14, 2012. An extended conversation is also available for listening.