Accidental Kindness

“[Stein’s] incisive articulation of the emotional challenges faced by doctors is rendered in prose that’s vivid, candid, and shot through with compassion—it makes for an investigation that’s tough to forget. This is a standout.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Stein’s candour, curiosity and ethical engagement admit us to a different realm from the fast-paced medical narratives we’re used to reading. He refuses to simplify. Can kindness be taught? Should it be taught? And what is kindness in the first place? Stein may be guiding us toward a Socratic impasse, but, as with Platonic dialogues, we learn a great deal along the way.”—Rachel Hadas, The Times Literary Supplement

“An important addition to the canon of publications by physician writers as health care moves toward a greater understanding of the need for empathy and kindness toward our patients, but also toward ourselves as health care workers.”—Annals of Emergency Medicine

“Gratifying and gut-wrenching. Interesting and intense. Stimulating and stressful. . . . While practicing physicians are the intended primary audience for Accidental Kindness, all types of healthcare professionals—nurses, dentists, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and mental health workers—should find the book instructive, comforting, and insightful.”—Journal of Medical Humanities

“With refreshing candor and page-turning prose, Stein dives deep into his own experience as a medical student, internist, son, and patient to look at the ways that doctor-patient interactions can influence care and patient outcomes, and what happens when doctors make mistakes. One of the most powerful, honest, and insightful books I've read by a doctor.”—Belle Boggs, author of The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood

“Michael Stein is a thoughtful, compassionate, exceptional physician, and the same qualities are evident on every page of Accidental Kindness. These intimate and breathtaking patient stories remind me that the essence of medicine is to ease suffering, however and wherever and in whomever it occurs.”—Dr. Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Being Human

“In this beautifully written meditation, Stein talks about trying to be the doctor his patients needed, what he did when he fell short, and how working through the challenges of his impossible profession made him a different physician and a different man. This is so much more than a book about medicine. It’s about self-acceptance, being an adult, and facing up to what our jobs really require. We all need to discover our capacity for kindness, empathy, and self-compassion. Riveting.”—Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation and The Empathy Diaries

“Anyone practicing to be more human—that is, practicing to be more kind in this troubling world—will be inspired by Michael Stein’s lucid and penetrating meditation on empathy. This book has deep wisdom and hope. I read it in one sitting, and felt that I was drinking powerful medicine in the form of prose.”—Sarah Ruhl, Pulitzer Prize finalist, playwright, and author of Smile: The Story of a Face, a memoir