Slippery Slopes

Vincent Lam was just a few years out of his residency and working as an emergency room doctor when SARS hit Toronto in 2003. That experience informed Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, which follows four characters as they scramble through medical school and begin their careers right before the outbreak. (It won the Giller Prize in 2006.) More recently, Lam has focused his practice on addiction treatment; since 2016, he has helmed the Coderix Medical Clinic, not far from Moss Park in downtown Toronto. And that work most certainly informs On the Ravine, in which Lam reprises two characters from his debut: Dr. Chen and the former Dr. Fitzgerald.

Now two decades out of medical school, Chen runs the Swan Clinic in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighbourhood, where he treats a diverse range of patients with an abundance of compassion and generosity. In his off-hours, he...