I got this ex-library softcover from Better World Books. It's a graphic novel about a fictional Welsh doctor, based largely on the author's own experiences - including his struggles with OCD. The narrative shows him treating patients, bicycling to and from work, spending time with his best friend (whose relationship with his new boyfriend seems to be going better than our protagonist's relationship with his wife), and fretting over his own compulsions. There are also flashback segments showing him in childhood, then as a teenager, and into young adulthood, providing glimpses into how he got to where he is now.

The artwork's a bit scratchy but effective, with some gruesome scenes here and there - at one point he has to identify a suicide victim - but, overall, the story shows him doing his best to care for his patients and to manage his own life. By the end, it seems that his advice to a patient re therapy for OCD may have convinced him to take similar steps for himself...

While many of the patient encounters are pretty grim, there's an upbeat one of a man whose surgery left his chest tattoo misaligned - but he's so happy with his new lease on life that he doesn't care.

And there's an interesting nod to Welsh traditions near the end, when the protagonist takes his friend to see a "rag well" - a place where people tie strips of cloth to the branches of a tree that grows by a spring or a well, on the theory that as the cloth disintegrates the person's ailment will disappear.

I'm adding this to the Armchair Travels to the UK/ Republic of Ireland bookbox (its bookbox journal here). Hope someone enjoys it!

Received in the My Armchair Travels to the UK/ Republic of Ireland.

2023 - culling the stacks, so I'll find another place to release this book.

Released outside. Please enjoy!