First published 2014
An elderly Chinese immigrant faces an impossible choice between his son's wishes and his wife's care as dementia takes hold. A Latina doctor discovers that her medical expertise cannot solve her own family crisis when her eldest daughter desperately seeks attention. A young veteran returns from war carrying injuries that will define his entire future. A gay physician finds that his patients teach him unexpected lessons about what family really means. A psychiatrist who fights for society's forgotten patients begins to question her own mental state. These interconnected lives unfold across San Francisco's medical landscape, from busy emergency rooms to quiet nursing home corridors. Each person grapples with the gap between medical training and human reality. The stories reveal how illness reshapes relationships and how healing requires more than clinical knowledge.
Genres: literary-fiction, medical, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, medical-expertise
Setting: San Francisco
Period: 21st-century
272 pages · Paperback · Bloomsbury USA
Content warnings: medical-trauma, mental-illness