Strong medicine

There's struggle and uncomfortable truths in Emma Espiner's memoir but also humour, hope and inspiration.

- DR EILEEN MERRIMAN

THERE'S A CURE FOR THIS, by Dr Emma Espiner (Penguin, $35), out on May 9.

"I didn't know about kids eating dog food for breakfast." There are many lines that stayed with me once I'd put this book down (after reading it cover to cover in less than 24 hours), but this is the one that won't go away. I read that sentence three times, trying to visualise that in my head. I couldn't. But somewhere in New Zealand, a first-world country, there are kids eating dog food. Don't look away.

Emma Espiner (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou) graduated from the School of Medicine in Auckland in 2020. I remember seeing her at a writers festival a few months into her first year as a doctor. "How's your first year as a house officer?" I asked. "It's shit," she said. "Yes, it is," I replied - because it's rare to get any other answer, certainly not "I love it". I was impressed because Espiner was already at the top of her field as an award-winning writer, broadcaster and political commentator. Medicine needs people like Espiner. Medicine needs diversity, new ways of thinking, a shake-up.