Bestselling novelist Samuel Shem is known as the author of the three million copy–selling modern classic, The House of God, which with dazzling humor describes the horrors and banalities of working in hospitals—and is required reading for medical students and doctors. A Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Medical School faculty member for over three decades, Shem is currently Professor of Medicine in Medical Humanities at NYU Medical School. He has given over sixty medical school commencement addresses on "Staying Human in Medicine." His other books include The Spirit of the Place, named USA Book News Best Novel of the Year and Independent Publishers Best Novel of the Year in 2009. His award-winning play Bill W. and Dr. Bob, co-written with his wife Janet Surrey, about the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, ran for ten months Off-Broadway in 2013. Surrey and Shem are co-authors of the 2015 book The Buddha's Wife: The Path of Awakening Together. He lives in Boston and Costa Rica, together with Janet and their daughter Katie. You can visit his website at www.samuelshem.com
