Writer, M.D.: The Best Contemporary Fiction and Nonfiction by Doctors (Vintage)

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.

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.

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