The Spirit of the Place, Samuel Shem
The Spirit of the Place, Samuel Shem
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The Spirit of the Place

Author: Samuel Shem

Narrator: Sean Runnette

Unabridged: 15 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 01/10/2023

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of the The House of God comes an ambitious novel about the complicated relationships between mothers and sons, doctors and patients, the past and the present, and love and death... 

Settled into a relationship with an Italian yoga instructor and working in Europe, Dr. Orville Rose's peace is shaken by his mother's death. On his return to Columbia, a Hudson River town of quirky people and “plagued by breakage,” he learns that his mother has willed him a large sum of money, her 1981 Chrysler, and her Victorian house in the center of town. There's one odd catch: he must live in her house for one year and thirteen days. As he struggles with his decision—to stay and meet the terms of the will or return to his life in Italy—Orville reconnects with family, reunites with former friends, and comes to terms with old rivals and bitter memories. In the process he’ll discover his own history, as well as his mother’s, and finally learn what it really means to be a healer, and to be healed.

About The Author

Samuel Shem is a novelist, playwright, and, for three decades, a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty. His novels include The House of God, Mount Misery, and Fine. 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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cathie on March 21, 2020

Great book! Samuel Shem writes from his heart. As in his other books, he shows the reader the heart of medicine, why it is about caring for others, and where the system often goes so wrong. At the same time he gives us a great story to read......more

Goodreads review by Viviane on December 29, 2012

As a very young boy, Orville Rose senses that he is "a part of something else," a joyous cry that his mother quickly quashes with the stern response, "This is all there is." Orville runs to his room in tears and basically spends the rest of his life running away. Now after he has served overseas as a......more

Goodreads review by Stephen on August 25, 2024

The writer known as Samuel Shem has a good heart and a sharp sense of humor. He is best known as a satirist. I liked this 2008 book, satire-tinged, less than I had the later (2015) At the Heart of the Universe. The author gives us a memorable and touching character in Miranda Braak. Yet I found the......more

Goodreads review by Joanie on May 27, 2017

My friend, Dr. Andy Walker, recommended this book. Andy's book recommendations are usually worth investigating, so I took a look at this one and it is definitely worth reading. Orville Rose goes back to his hometown after the death of this Jewish "smother." She had a provision in her will leaving hi......more

Goodreads review by Rebecca on November 01, 2020

I have read 2 other books by the author and love them. Mount Misery, and House of God, are classics on the must read list for anyone interested in or in med school or for practicing docs. This book was a disappointment. Anyone looking for a book sort of like the first 2 may be disappointed as well.......more

Quotes

“Samuel Shem captured the humor, the angst and pathos of medical training in that unforgettable book, The House of God. His new book is an incredible and heartfelt story of a physician whose life has taken the most unexpected twists and turns. The Spirit of the Place entertains, satisfies, and affirms; it is beautifully conceived and brilliantly executed. Shem has done it again!”—Abraham Verghese, M.D., author of Counting for Stone

“A deeply moving and profounding intelligent exploration of the complexities and rewards of family, profession and place. The story of a young physician returning to his small town becomes a tale with universal meaning. This book continues to resonate in the mind and heart long after it is read.”—Jerome Groopman, M.D., author of How Doctors Think

“In this lovely novel, Samuel Shem brilliantly describes scenery from the Italian Lakes to the Hudson River Valley with vivid enchanting detail. But his real subject is the landscape of the human heart with its dangers and delights, its vertiginous cliffs and mossy woods, its comforts and contradictions. This is a wonderful book about the surprises of human connection and the infinite power of love.”—Susan Cheever

“The Spirit of the Place is written with a large heart, a healing touch, wry and wise insight into the human condition. Worthy of the best of Samuel Shem, which is worthy indeed.”—James Carrol

“[A] grand, wonderfully insightful story of love and death, mothers and sons, doctors and patients—filled with larger than life characters and told with outrageous Shem-humor and authentic humanity.”—Michael Palmer, author of The First Patient

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