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The Spirit of the Place Paperback – December 4, 2012

by Samuel Shem (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 91 ratings
See all formats and editions
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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.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    416 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    December 4, 2012
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.94 x 8.25 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0425258785
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0425258781
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“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



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.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Publishing Group; Reprint edition (December 4, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0425258785
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0425258781
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.94 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 91 ratings

About the author

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Samuel Shem

Samuel Shem

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Samuel Shem (pen name of Stephen Bergman) is a novelist, playwright, and, for three decades, a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty. His novels include The House of God, Fine, and Mount Misery. 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 Women and Men. Editors Carol Donley and Martin Kohn are cofounders of the Center for Literature, Medicine, and Biomedical Humanities at Hiram College. Since 1990 the Center has brought humanities and the health care professions together in mutually enriching interactions, including interdisciplinary courses, summer symposia, and the Literature and Medicine book series from The Kent State University Press. The first three anthologies in the series grew out of courses in the Biomedical Humanities program at Hiram. Then the series expanded to include original writing and edited collections by physicians, nurses, humanities scholars, and artists. The books in the series are designed to serve as resources and texts for health care education as well as for the general public.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
91 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

K. Fink
5.0 out of 5 stars Opening to the Spirit of a Very Real Place
Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2021
Verified Purchase
Unexpected conditions can have us traveling to places we did not expect. Reluctantly responding to his dead mother's critical controlling spirit again as she offers him a significant inheritance provided he lives in the house of his youth for one year and thirteen days, the protagonist, Orville, finds himself once again in the broken down town of his youth. With all of its struggles and challenges, this town has the full spectrum of human betrayal, love, forgiveness, acceptance, bad choices, suffering, hopes and mutual support.

Orville brings to this his medical skills along with a desire to escape from what at first seems only to be endured. However, tending to the town's medical needs is an investment. In his role, he learns all of the secrets. He begins to form relationships with those he cares about and gradually comes face to face with how his own assumptions might be limiting his happiness. This novel shows how allowing ourselves to come into contact with the true spirit of a place can teach us a great deal about what we really want, what matters to us and the power we have to create it in the here and now and how that can matter for wherever we choose to do next, no matter where we chose to do it.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Samuel Shem is best known as the author of The House of God ...
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2015
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Samuel Shem is best known as the author of The House of God and Mount Misery. While this is not a funny as The House of God, it`s not as sad either, a completely different stand alone novel. I enjoyed it.
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Clifton K. Meador, Sr.
5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful story of love, reconciliation and conflicted love between a son and mother
Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2018
Verified Purchase
Shem is a superb story teller about a conflicted love between a mother and a son who is a doctor. The young doctor (Orville Rose) is forced to return from a love affair in Italy to his small town home on the Hudson River. His dead mother has left letters to be delivered periodically saying in her will that Orville must live in her house for one year and 13 days if he is to inherit a million dollars.. One event and one letter after another pulls the reader into stories and love and conflicts in this small town. The scene where the young doctor attends the death of his old mentor doctor friend is special and could only been written by a doctor who has faced the death of a friend with love and compassion. Dr. Shem has done it again with these stories. The reader is led in the dark until the last few pages. Stories well told.
2 people found this helpful
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Rufus
3.0 out of 5 stars Just Okay
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2016
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Toned down from House of God, but less focused on medicine and more just a story in a fictitious town.
One person found this helpful
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HAWK
4.0 out of 5 stars A good read
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2016
Verified Purchase
A fine insightful journey in the life and trials of a doc coming to grips with mortality, loss, love and finally peace with his choices.
2 people found this helpful
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Michael J. Rocha
5.0 out of 5 stars Shem's best book!
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2020
Verified Purchase
As a physician, I have read Shem's House of God in med school, Mount Misery, and most recently, Man's Fourth Best Hospital. Apparently, I missed this gem when I was transitioning from cardiology fellow to returning to my hometown to practice cardiology. A friend recommended that I read it and ended up reading it twice!

This book captures the beautiful realizations and privilege of practicing medicine in your hometown with all of the extreme quirkiness that each town exhibits. It holds up a mirror to our humanness, our handicaps and teaches us to embrace these with compassion and forgiveness for ourselves and others. It also teaches us that the important things are not always about chasing a vision but seeing that what we are looking for is already here if we can be present to it.
2 people found this helpful
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C. Peterson
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Summer Reading
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2016
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Great story. Not too deep. I love the writer and that's why I wanted to read it.
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D. Wachi
5.0 out of 5 stars Great value.
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2023
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Ordered as used but it arrived in as-new condition. What a deal!
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Top reviews from other countries

jeffski07
5.0 out of 5 stars A lire!
Reviewed in France on September 14, 2011
Verified Purchase
The compassion of Sam Shem. The masterfull writing equals John Irving at his best. Read it and weep, laugh, and much more.
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