About

Over the past two decades, I’ve been fortunate to carry on two careers, as a writer and a doctor, working at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. I’ve published five novels, and I’m proud to say that only one included a physician character. My latest novel, In the Age of Love, was a national BookSense selection. More recently, I’ve tried to share my love of medicine through the stories of patients I’ve cared for. Patients put up with my writer-ly nosiness and have taught me the pleasures that come from helping. My first book of non-fiction, The Lonely Patient: How We Experience Illness, won a 2007 Christopher Award as well as a Nautilus Prize. When I began The Addict, I knew I wanted to portray a patient of mine, a young woman whose story touched me deeply. I wanted to give readers as full a sense as possible of an addict’s psychology and behavior from a doctor’s point of view. If my patient were ever to read this book, I wanted her to remember things about herself. My goal was to illuminate pieces of her story while widening her view and other readers’ views of addiction. This is the story of one addict, but it is also the story of all addicts.