Starting on the evening before he begins work as a doctor, this book charts Max Pemberton s touching and funny journey through his first year in the NHS. Progressing from youthful idealism to frank bewilderment, Max realises how little his job is about saving people and how much of his time is taken up by signing forms and trying to figure out all the important things no one has explained yet — for example, the crucial question of how to tell whether someone is dead or not.