BESTSUBURBAN – Axel Zander

You feel transported back in time to the 1970s and immediately plunged in young doctor Fritz Blücher’s life. The author vibrantly describes the years that are perhaps the most significant for the main character, who has just decided to undertake his one-year internship in the distant USA.
He parts from his fiancée Leni. However, he wants to use this opportunity together with his best friend Chris and gain important experience overseas.
At the Westsuburban Hospital in Oak Park, near Chicago, the two comrades finally find a good teaching hospital, where they learn many new lessons – among other things, the young doctor faces his first experiences with chemotherapy. They make friends and take an interest in the socio-political events of the United States. After almost a year, he returns to Germany for a short period, for a job interview at a pulmonary clinic near Hamburg and to meet his girlfriend again. What will Fritz decide to do: a future in Germany or in the USA, at the University of Illinois?

… It was the first day of a new year, when I had to choose one of the ice sheets.

Axel Zander, born in 1943, completed his medical studies in Munich and Lübeck, his medical assistantship in Berlin and later in Oak Park, Illinois. His American career led him, for 20 years, from Chicago to San Francisco, via Houston; then the Hamburg native doctor decided to return to Germany. His medical interests focus on stem cell transplants, leukaemia, and cancer treatment.