Staff Pick
When Katrina devastated New Orleans, what exactly took place at the hospital where conditions went from terrible to unspeakable over the course of five days? In this extraordinary chronicle, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Sheri Fink takes on an extremely difficult subject matter admirably, offering a book that is as piercing as it is provocative. Recommended By Renee P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
One of the New York Times’s Best Ten Books of the Year
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Winner of the 2014 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, the Los Angeles Times
Book Prize, the Ridenhour Book Prize, the 2014 American Medical Writers
Association Medical Book Award (Public/Healthcare Consumers), a 2014
Science in Society Journalism Award, and the SIBA 2014 Book Award for
Nonfiction
An ALA Notable Book, finalist for the NYPL 2014 Helen
Bernstein Award, shortlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award and the ALA
Andrew Carnegie Medal
An NPR “Great Reads” Book, a Chicago Tribune Best Book, a Seattle Times Best Book, a Time Magazine Best Book, Entertainment Weekly’s #1 Nonfiction Book, a Christian Science Monitor Best Book, and a Kansas City Star Best Book
Pulitzer
Prize winner Sheri Fink’s landmark investigation of patient deaths at a
New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina – and her suspenseful
portrayal of the quest for truth and justice.
In the tradition
of the best investigative journalism, physician and reporter Sheri Fink
reconstructs 5 days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into
the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and maintain life
amid chaos.
After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose,
the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to
designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several of
those caregivers faced criminal allegations that they deliberately
injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths.
Five Days at Memorial,
the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what
happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting
for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of
health care rationing.
In a voice at once involving and fair,
masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life
care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are for the impact of
large-scale disasters—and how we can do better. A remarkable book,
engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms your understanding of human nature in crisis.
Review
“Fink’s six years of research and more than 500 interviews yield a rich
narrative full of complex characters, wrenching ethical dilemmas, and
mounting suspense. General readers and medical professionals alike will
finish the book haunted by the question,’What would I have done?’” Library Journal (starred)
Review
"The book is an artful blend of drama and philosophy [and] with apparent
effortlessness, Fink tells the Memorial story with cogency and
atmosphere.” Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Review
“In this astonishing blend of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalism (Fink,
who also has an M.D. and Ph.D., won the award for the investigative
reporting on which this book is based) and breathtaking narration, she
chronicles the chaotic evacuation of the hospital and the agonizing
ethical, physical, and emotional quandaries facing Memorial nurses and
doctors, including a nightmarish triage process that led to the
controversial decision to inject critically ill patients with fatal
doses of morphine in order to refocus attention on those with a chance
of surviving.” Publishers Weekly (starred)
Review
"Both a breathtaking read and an essential book for understanding how people behave in times of crisis.” Booklist (starred)
Review
"By reporting the depth of those gruesome hours in Memorial before the
helicopters came, and giving weight to medical ethics as grounded in the
law, Sheri Fink has written an unforgettable story. Five Days at Memorial is social reporting of the first rank.” Jason Berry, New York Times
Review
“What we have here is masterly reporting and the glow of fine writing.” Sherwin B. Nuland, New York Times Book Review
About the Author
SHERI FINK'S reporting has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Award, and the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award, among other journalism prizes. Most recently, her coverage of Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac received the Mike Berger Award from Columbia University and the Beat Reporting Award from the Association of Healthcare Journalists. Fink, a former relief worker in disaster and conflict zones, received her MD and PhD from Stanford University. Her first book, War Hospital, is about medical professionals under siege during the genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina.