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Shadowing  By  cover art

Shadowing

By: Weike Wang
Narrated by: Francesca Ling
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Publisher's summary

From the award-winning author of Chemistry comes a sharp and poignant short story that follows a young medical student working in clinical research and grappling with the realities of a future in her chosen field. 

To become a doctor someday, every student must complete a certain number of hours in clinical research, volunteering, and shadowing. There are algorithms to this stuff, to building the perfect résumé for admission to the perfect doctoral program. With this goal in mind, a young pre-med student earns a coveted role in a study about diet and its effects on the human heart, replacing another Asian-American woman from the same school and on a similar college track. The doctor in charge - a middle-aged woman who’d built her career at some of the most elite medical institutions in the country - is erratic and overbearing at first, but her quirks and habits become clearer as the time goes on. Faced with the stark realities of the doctor’s life within and outside of the lab, the student must take stock of her ambitions and her own place in the world. 

©2020 Weike Wang (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

About the Creator

Weike Wang is the author of Chemistry, and her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, Alaska Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, among other publications. She is the recipient of the 2018 PEN/Hemingway Award, a Whiting Award and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35. She lives in New York City.
Photographed by Beowulf Sheenan

What listeners say about Shadowing

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Shadowing is a tremendous listening

Short, but a reasonably engaging story, soft female voice narration. I have greatly enjoyed it. Shadowing is excellent listening.

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Fun

Interesting, fun, and intriguing. The story kept me interested and asking what is going to happen next.

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1 person found this helpful

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What exactly was the purpose?

This short story is well written, easy to follow and narrated appropriately. My struggle was to find the purpose of the story. It was a short time commitment, so I'm not too miffed about it.

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I Can Relate

Anyone who has been through medical training can relate to this story. The dynamic between the self absorbed physician researcher and the powerless student narrator made me cringe. Essays such as this should be required reading for those at the top.

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7 people found this helpful

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Fantastic story and storytelling

Wang is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. Such smart, sharp, funny writing that doesn’t skimp on heart. Highly recommend.

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1 person found this helpful

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Excellent essay

Detailed report of emotions and struggles while heading out into the medical field under self- absorbed mentor. Would like a follow-up of road on the career!

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uninteresting boring

Hard to stay listening but I struggled thru it. I couldn't wait till I was at the end.I was glad to see it was a short story

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subtle but compelling

This story definitely isn't action-packed, or even plot driven, but I enjoyed it as a fascinating character study and a glimpse into a world I didn't really know existed. The characters develop in subtle ways, and by the end I felt like there was a really satisfying level of depth and complexity. Overall an enjoyable and thought-provoking listen, and I thought well narrated too.

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4 people found this helpful

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Great story about family, loss and love I

I fell this story all the way to my toes! I would have never guessed the ending. This is first book I’ve listened to performed by Francesca Ling and I think she did a fantastic job, believe me it’s not going to be the last! This is the first book by this author and I promise you that as long as she’s writing her s bill.

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Accurate med/grad school setting

Nice story, causing grad school PTSD to flare RE: the Principal Investigator who was going to make his grad students split the cost of replacing the pipette that his unchecked four-year-old son had dropped behind the large centrifuge. So, a very accurate portrayal!

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1 person found this helpful