Neurologist by day and author by night, Liam Durcan has written a poignant and refreshing debut novel, García’s Heart. The novel, lightly peppered with scientific concepts, is a psychological drama exploring one man’s journey to understanding himself and finding the truth even if it means taking apart cherished memories from his youth.
The story follows neurologist Patrick Lazerenko to The Hague, where he sits through day after day of testimonies identifying his mentor, Hernan García, as participating in the brutal torture of civilians in Honduras during its civil war in the early 1980s.
The rival narratives interwoven throughout the story are quite evocative and keep you guessing what García may really be guilty of. Lazerenko presents one narrative based on his memories, but then appears to be an ambitious female journalist who has reconstructed this narrative based on facts and witness accounts. “She has access to the truth without it being clouded by all of these memories and emotions, and Lazerenko envies her for that,” says Durcan.
Further to exploring the meaning of truth and how it relates to memory, Durcan explores the types of compromises that doctors sometimes need to make in their careers. Lazerenko ends up leaving an academic research position to start up his own company, which uses neuroeconomics to help large corporations better influence consumer decision-making. García is potentially involved in torture, and after resettling in a multicultural district of Montreal, provides illegal medical services to poor immigrants in the backroom of his corner store.
Although the novel revolves around García’s war crime trial, the story isn’t explicit about the torture that was involved. “My personal desire was not to be graphic about the torture,” says Durcan. “It was important to the story that we would only hear about what happened through the reminiscence of the prison guard or the work of the journalist. I wanted the book to remain impartial in that sense. And with García not talking, we have to figure these things out for ourselves.”
Some of Durcan’s inspiration in exploring war crimes executed by doctors was found by reading The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide by Robert Jay Lifton. “The thing that troubled me the most were the stories of some of the prisoners that survived. Some of them would say that this particular doctor was a good man, he was good to me, he was ethical,” says Durcan. “I don’t know if that’s just relativism in a terrible place or rationalization to survive. I found that monumentally troubling, how a person can be tortured and see what is happening to their community and have any sort of regard for a person participating in that.
“There is a certain degree of ambiguity there and I wanted to explore that and illustrate how certain actions may not have that moral clarification— novels are good at that,” he adds. “That’s why some people will walk away from this book thinking that García was innocent while others will see him as guilty.”
