The House of God - Samuel Shem

At once hilarious and brutally honest, this novel reaches beyond the white lab coat and reveals what doctors, nurses, and students actually endure. The House of God has done for medicine what M*A*S*H did for warfare. nBy turns heartbreaking, hilarious, and utterly human, The House of God is a mesmerizing and provocative novel about what it really takes to become a doctor.

nThe raunchy, troubling, and hilarious novel that turned into a cult phenomenon. Singularly compelling...brutally honest.--The New York Times n nStruggling with grueling hours and sudden life-and-death responsibilities, Basch and his colleagues, under the leadership of their rule-breaking senior resident known only as the Fat Man, must learn not only how to be fine doctors but, eventually, good human beings. n nA phenomenon ever since it was published, The House of God was the first unvarnished, unglorified, and uncensored portrait of what training to become a doctor is truly like, in all its terror, exhaustion and black comedy.

With more than two million copies sold worldwide, it has been hailed as one of the most important medical novels ever written. n nWith an introduction by John Updike n