The Surgeon's Son

By Thaddeus E Castillenti

Caduceus was raised in the margins of medicine-hospital corridors, operating rooms, and long absences shaped by his father, a surgeon known simply as Dr. Owl. From an early age, he learned that precision mattered, that dissociation could be taught, and that survival inside medicine often required sacrifice long before it required skill.

When Caduceus enters the healthcare system himself, he finds a profession no longer governed by judgment or care, but by protocols, profit, and quiet authoritarian control. Patients are categorized. Doctors are managed. Outcomes matter less than compliance. The system works-not to heal, but to endure.

As institutional failure collides with personal reckoning, Caduceus is forced to confront what he has inherited from his father, what he misunderstood, and what it costs to remain inside a system designed to consume those who try to resist it.

The Surgeon's Son is a restrained, unsettling novel about legacy, medicine, and the difference between endurance and care. It is not a story about heroism or salvation, but about choosing what to preserve when the system functions exactly as intended.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GKXXL1LN
• ISBN13: 9798246205181
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"