“Stein has come to understand the emotions that patients experience when illness descends, the feeling that the body has betrayed them, the terror of the unknown, the loss of a legion of familiar comforts, and the loneliness of being kidnapped into the land of the ill.” -The New York Times
”Stein’s narrative powers and artistic sensibility are obvious in this moving meditation on the emotional aspects of illness.” -Library Journal
“THE LONELY PATIENT gives patients, along with their families, a new understanding of the hardships of illness that can alleviate the alienation, and hopefully, bring people closer together.”
-Jewish Exponent
“Stein has added a worthy topic to the canon of medical literature, and this book could serve as an inspiring guide to patients and their caregivers. It's at its best when he treads along the true experiences of his own special insights as a human being and clinician.” -The Post and Courier
“A superb doctor and sublime writer, Michael Stein captures the pain, the loneliness, the terrifying arbitrariness of life with illness. The Lonely Patient is the indispensable book for patients and patients’ families. Poetic, profound, original, Stein proves the ideal guide in the journey through the most difficult terrain any of us is likely to traverse.” -Peter Kramer, M.D.
“Stein has an amazingly observant eye, a tolerant ear and an intensely human and permissive frame of mind. He has that rare quality of hearing the voices of both the patients and their tenacious illnesses. And he is unafraid to catalog his own professional shortcomings.” -The Providence Journal
Beautifully written, this is a look into the hearts and minds of people suffering serious illness: into the terrors that they often don't express directly….Stein's most expressive prose evokes the isolated world of the patient, who is locked into a limited existence, confined in a hospital room or at home…This is a moving and eloquent testimony from a caring practitioner.” -Publishers Weekly
“A look at what it’s really like to fight a life-threatening disease by a physician who dares to consider what life on the other side of the stethoscope is like.” -Huntsville Times
“Stein’s writing talents are on display in the crisp language that appears throughout the book…What speaks as loudly as the patients’ stories is the experience Stein himself undergoes as a physician trying to learn the illness language. He suggests 4 major emotions that specifically affect the chronically ill: betrayal, terror, loss, and loneliness. As Stein makes his way through the country of chronic disease, he describes just how challenging the practice of empathy can be, even for a provider with top-flight narrative skills.” - Medscape
“In combining the dual careers of novelist and physician, Michael Stein has honed his skills of observation of characters and patients; sharpened his analytical faculties for plot or diagnoses; and developed a crisp but fluid style that displays wit and intellect for resolutions or consultations. In his newest book, he lays the dual tracks of his professional life on top of each other as he writes about what it’s like to be a doctor.” -The Boston Phoenix
“Stein is a gifted writer and novelist whose prose is often poetry….Recommended for anyone who has or will journey on a path as patient or companion. It is a healing book. The greatest gifts of The Lonely Patient are the insights and techniques it provides to the patient who is confronting the isolating emotions of illness.” -The Oklahoman
“Michael Stein’s achievement is to have taken the medical case histories of patients and transformed them into stories. In each of these stories, the patient is the hero, or chief character, by virtue of being sick. It is a blending of medicine and literature that is most effective. The reader is moved at the plight of each of these patients. My hat is off to Michael Stein for this powerful book.” -Richard Selzer
“The Lonely Patient is more than just a survival guide or owner’s manual for those who are ill or whose bodies are broken. Recognizing that only clinical recovery can nullify loneliness, the author reminds us that a temporary escape can still be found in memory, imagination, and hope. Physicians and especially patients will find that The Lonely Patient makes very good company.” -Journal of the American Medical Association
“Seeing illness from the patient’s point of view sounds easy, but among doctors it is both difficult and rare. This excellent, empathetic book leaves me with one thought: ‘Dr. Stein, why can’t you be my doctor?’” -Anne Fadiman
