Quiet Time With the President: A Doctor’s Story About Learning to Listen

After many years of serving the country and doing his part to help rebuild South Africa, Dr Peter Friedland was given an opportunity to serve as a member of Nelson Mandela’s medical team and helped to monitor his hearing. Over the years they built a rapport and their conversations regularly veered towards politics. Mandela often gave Peter perspective and would push him to examine his reasons for supporting specific causes and holding particular views. As an ENT specialist, Peter regularly treated victims of violent crime. He also lost colleagues and friends to hijackings and other crimes. But when his daughters were exposed to a robbery, he had to make a life-changing decision. This book examines the powerful forces that push people away from South Africa and those that pull them back in. It is never as simple as merely staying or going – it is an emotional tug of war that continues until something snaps. Through many conversations had with Mandela and lessons he learnt from his life, Peter worked through some of his PTSD, his fears and the deep sense of hopelessness he felt as he came to terms with his decision to emigrate to Australia. His story beautifully captures the tension between an uncertain future that is out of your control and the fear that you might not survive.