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Adam Kay
Adam Kay is the author of the bestselling memoir This is Going to Hurt, which offers a funny and honest look at his time as a junior doctor. His writing often blends humor with serious subject matter, making for a truly unique read.
This is going to hurt
This is going to hurt
- Pages
- 288
- Published
- 2017
- Language
- English
Synopsis
Adam Kay kept a diary throughout his years training as a junior doctor in the NHS, scribbling entries in the small hours after brutal, understaffed shifts. This Is Going to Hurt collects those entries into a memoir that is by turns laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely devastating.
Kay takes readers behind the curtain of the medical front line: the 97-hour weeks, the missed birthdays and weddings, the absurd patient encounters, and the life-and-death decisions made on almost no sleep. Beneath the comedy runs a serious argument — a tribute to the exhausted people who keep the health service running, and a sharp indictment of the system that grinds them down. The book builds toward the case that ultimately drove Kay out of medicine.
A number-one Sunday Times bestseller translated into dozens of languages and adapted into a BAFTA-winning television series, This Is Going to Hurt is one of the defining memoirs of modern medical life.
Genres
Blackwell's Debut Book of the Year (2017)Books Are My Bag Readers' Award – Non-Fiction (2017)National Book Awards (UK) – Book Club Book of the Year (2018)National Book Awards (UK) – Non-Fiction Book of the Year (2018)
Frequently asked questions
Is This is Going to Hurt based on a true story?
The book is a collection of diary entries written by Adam Kay during his time as a junior doctor in the NHS, offering a firsthand account of his experiences.
Does This is Going to Hurt have a TV adaptation?
A television series based on the book was produced, starring Ben Whishaw as Adam Kay.
What awards did This is Going to Hurt win?
At the UK's 2018 National Book Awards, This Is Going to Hurt won Non-Fiction Book of the Year and Book Club Book of the Year, and Adam Kay was named New Writer of the Year. It had already won Blackwell's Debut Book of the Year and a Books Are My Bag Readers' Award for non-fiction in 2017.