Man’s 4th Best Hospital

Samuel Shem is a novelist, playwright, and a member of the faculty of the New York University School of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center. His novels include The House of God, Mount Misery, Fine, and The Spirit of the Place. He is coauthor with his wife, Janet Surrey, of the hit Off-Broadway play Bill W. and Dr. Bob, the story of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous (winner of the 2007 Performing Arts Award of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence), and We Have to Talk: Healing Dialogues Between Men and Women.

The sequel to the bestselling and highly acclaimed The House of God

Years after the events of The House of God, the Fat Man has been given leadership over the new Future of Medicine Clinic at what used to be Man's Best Hospital but has sunk to an embarrassing 4th, and has persuaded Dr. Roy Basch and some of his cohorts to join him in teaching a new generation of interns and residents. In a medical landscape dominated by computer screens and corrupted by money, they have one goal: to make medicine humane again.

What follows is a mesmerizing, heartbreaking, and hilarious exploration of how the health-care industry, and especially doctors, have evolved over the past thirty years.

In this sequel to The House of God, comes a mesmerizing, heartbreaking, and hilarious exploration of how the health-care industry, and especially doctors, have evolved over the past thirty years.

ESSENTIAL FOLLOW-UP TO THE CLASSIC BESTSELLING NOVEL: The House of God has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, and many medical students view it as required reading. Man's 4th Best Hospital is the perfect return to the characters from the classic and addresses many issues facing medical professionals todayGREAT ENDORSEMENTS: The raves rolled in from Dr. Sanjay Gupta ("Shem has done it again. An instant classic! You will get pissed off, double over in laughter, and even cry."), Abraham Verghese ("…uses his unique writing style, satire and comedy to allow the most serious examination of the medical profession, both its joys and its seamy underbelly.") and many others.STRONG TRACK RECORD AT BERKLEY: The 2010 Berkley reissue of The House of God, which features an introduction by John Updike, has sold over 100K copies and continues to have a 12-month ROM over 1,500 copiesGENERAL APPEAL FOR MEDICAL FICTION: Although medical professionals and medical students are a core target, Shem's sharp wit, immersive narrative, and a broad interest in the medical field-as evidenced by the popularity of TV medical dramas-will help this appeal to a wide range of readers