The Application of Pressure

For paramedics Tash and Joel, a regular workday is like a supercut of the worst days of other people’s lives. They maintain their sanity through a friendship built on black humour, but as the constant exposure to trauma takes its toll, both, in different ways, must fight to preserve their mental health and relationships – even with one another. How much pressure can they handle, and what will happen when they finally crack? With each chapter revolving around an emergency – some frightening, some moving, some simply funny – Rachael Mead digs beneath the surface of gore and grit to lay bare the humanity of emergency services personnel and their patients. This breathtaking novel reveals not only the trauma of a life lived on the front line of medicine, but also the essential, binding friendships that make such a life possible.

‘Mead tells us how it is to be a paramedic – there is no euphemism, no sugar coating – but she does it with such compassion and humour that there is never a need to turn away. In-fact, I couldn’t put it down.’ PIP WILLIAMS

‘A delicate story with blood and guts’ STEVEN AMSTERDAM

A book for our times’ MOLLY MURN

‘Tender, riveting and funny’ REBEKAH CLARKSON

‘Authentic and original.’ PETER GOLDSWORTHY

‘A brilliant-cut gem’ MARGARET MORGAN