Synopses & Reviews
From Chekhov to Maugham to William Carlos Williams, doctors have long given voice to their unique perspectives through literature.
Writer, M.D. celebrates this rich tradition with a collection of fiction and nonfiction by today’s most beloved physician-writers, including,
• Abraham Verghese, on the lost art of the physical exam
• Pauline Chen, on the bond between a med student and her first cadaver
• Atul Gawande, on the ethical dilemmas of a young surgical intern
• Danielle Ofri, on the devastation of losing a patient
• Ethan Canin, on love, poetry, and growing old
These essays and stories illuminate the inner lives of men and women who deal with trauma, illness, mortality, and grief on a daily basis. Read together, they provide a candid, moving, one-of-a-kind glimpse behind the doctor’s mask.
About the Author
Leah Kaminsky is an award-winning writer and a practicing family physician. She is the author of four books, including Stitching Things Together, a collection of poetry. She has studied writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, New York University, and Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is currently at work on her first novel. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Jerome Groopman
Introduction by Leah Kaminsky
NONFICTION
Bedside Manners by Abraham Verghese
Index Case by Perri Klass
Resurrectionist by Pauline W. Chen
Intensive Care by Danielle Ofri
Falling Down by Sandeep Jauhar
Beauty by Gabriel Weston
Do Not Go Gentle by Irvin Yalom
The Lost Mariner by Oliver Sacks
The Learning Curve by Atul Gawande
The Infernal Chorus by Robert Jay Lifton
FICTION
We Are Nighttime Travelers by Ethan Canin
Dog 1, Dog 2 by Nick Earls
The Duty to Die Cheaply by Peter Goldsworthy
Finding Joshua by Jacinta Halloran
Tahirih by Leah Kaminsky
Communion by John Murray