Changes

Patrick has quite enough problems without this dilemma. He has Asperger’s syndrome, which severely limits his emotional response to situations and makes it difficult for him to interpret other people’s behaviour. He also has an obsession with death linked to witnessing a fatal accident at an early age. This could make for quite an unsympathetic character, but Bauer’s creation is a likable likeable one, presenting Patrick as a vulnerable young man trying to find his way in a confusing world.

Patrick’s difficulties in communicating are small fry compared to the situation faced by the book’s other main character. Sam Galen is in a coma. As his condition progresses he can hear and see what is happening around him, but cannot speak or communicate in any way. His situation is vividly drawn and leads the reader to the most terrifying character in the book. Coma ward nurse Tracy, whose casual indifference to her patients embodies everyone’s worst fears of what could go wrong with their care in hospital. Sam, a former teacher, has great respect for the majority of the hard -working hospital staff, but this is his chilling assessment of Tracy:

''She cares – but only when the doctors are around. When they’re not she’s lazy and slack……I see her. I know her. At school , we had half a dozen Tracys every year – loud, orange, stupid. Flirts and bullies….Then they were just a minor irritation. Now a Tracy holds my life in her hands.''