title: Consumption
author:  Kevin Patterson 
description: &quot;Gently seductive. . . . Remarkably compelling. . . . [Patterson's] insight into the human condition pulls us to the heart of events.&quot;&#8212;<i>The Washington Post</i>&#8220;Utterly absorbing. . . . Engag[es] the heart as well as the mind in the service of a greater truth.&#8221; &#8212;<i>The Times-Picayune </i>&#8220;Patterson's own experience . . . lends his simply told, involving novel an unmatchable authority.&#8221;&#8212;<i>Entertainment Weekly</i>&#8220;Patterson is a sure guide through inhospitable terrain, be it [that] of the tundra or the far recesses of the soul.&#8221;&#8212;<i>The New Yorker</i>
zlib_text: CONSUMPTION
  
  
  “Some first novels simply tower over their contemporaries by the scope of
  their ambition and the power of their vision. Last year, it was Joseph
  Boyden’s Three Day Road; earlier this year, it was Madeleine Thien’s
  Certainty; and now it’s Kevin Patterson’s Consumption.”
  
  
  —The Globe and Mail
  
  
  “Patterson’s writing is elegant and concise.… It’s the thematic resonance,
  along with an understated humanism reminiscent of Anton Chekhov (incidentally,
  another physician), that makes Consumption a quietly devastating novel.”
  
  
  —The Vancouver Sun
  
  
  “Gripping, unsettling and written with passion, Consumption is a vivid
  portrait of modern life in the Arctic.”
  
  
  —The Owen Sound Sun Times
  
  
  “This book is a staggeringly beautiful elegy for the traditional life of the
  Inuit, showing the inevitable loss when cultures collide.… Patterson’s medical
  knowledge, combined with his incredible gift as a writer, make Consumption
  utterly compelling.”
  
  
  —Edmonton Journal
  
  
  “Kevin Patterson, a doctor 