The Care of Strangers
Winner of the 2019 Miami Book Fair/de Groot Prize
The Care of Strangers is a moving story about friendship set in a gritty Brooklyn hospital, where a young woman learns to take charge of her life by taking care of others.
“In this fine and wonderful novel, the work of medicine—of saving lives—is closely related to the work of saving oneself, of staying intact under the pressure of work and inherited prejudices. The novel’s two protagonists are both heroes and outcasts, and Ellen Michaelson shows us an intricate world of medical care that she knows from the inside out. It’s a fascinating story that’s both clear-eyed and warm-hearted.”
“The book is incredibly touching in all senses of the word—in fact, it is about touching—about the way we handle and care for one another. . . . The portrait overall is quite moving. . . . A lovely novella.”
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About The Care of Strangers
Working as an orderly in a gritty Brooklyn public hospital, Sima is often reminded by her superiors that she’s the least important person there. An immigrant who, with her mother, escaped vicious anti-Semitism in Poland, she spends her shifts transporting patients, observing the doctors and residents … and quietly nurturing her aspirations to become a doctor herself by going to night school. Now just one credit short of graduating, she finds herself faltering in the face of pressure from her mother not to overreach, and to settle for the life she has now.
Everything changes when Sima encounters Mindy Kahn, an intern doctor struggling through her residency. Sensing a fellow outsider in need of support, Sima bonds with Mindy over their patients, and learns the power of truly letting yourself care for another person, helping to give her the courage to face her past, and take control of her future.
A moving story about vulnerability and friendship, The Care of Strangers is the story of one woman’s discovery that sometimes interactions with strangers are the best way to find yourself.
Praise for The Care of Strangers
“This is a tale of connection and disconnection, between patients, staff, and doctors; between the living and the dead; between parent and child. Sima’s outsider view of her world, tinged with wonder and given over in deft scenework, is a triumph of humanity, endurance, and love.” —Joanna Rose, author of A Small Crowd of Strangers
Michaelson’s success in arranging this unlikely friendship and the understated emotional journeys of her main characters, depicting the reality of hospital life, and portraying patients make for a very engaging read. —Booklist
“Ellen Michaelson is a wise and compassionate writer who understands the workings of a city hospital and the human heart. The Care of Strangers explores the mysteries of medicine and leaves us aching to help our neighbors, however we can.” —Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of Once Upon a River
“A gorgeous, clear-eyed gaze at illness and care, ambition and friendship, noting that sometimes we humans get tangled up. We get it wrong, try harder and find a way to care deeply. Michaelson gives us just what we need during these uncertain times, a humane and hopeful novella.” —Natalie Serber, author of Shout Her Lovely Name
“Physician Michaelson’s subtle, touching debut… has heart. It’s a[n] . . . affecting glimpse into the evolution of friendship between women facing difficult odds.” —Publishers Weekly
“I’ve just inhaled The Care of Strangers . . . Ellen Michaelson’s prismatic characters together propel the reader through the secrets and truths of how and why we live. Not a book about medicine—although indeed it portrays with remarkable fictional fidelity a gritty New York City hospital in the 1980s—The Care of Strangers lifts the veil on authenticity and generosity and even love. I cannot wait to teach this work—and to read it again.” —Rita Charon, Founder and Executive Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University
“Congratulations on your extraordinary work! I felt that rather than reading a book, I was experiencing and living in the world you have created. A deeply moving immersive portrait of people without privilege doing their work and striving and suffering and daring to connect. Thank you Dr. Michaelson. I look forward eagerly to more of your writing!” —Baird Brightman, PhD
“The Care of Strangers is set in a hospital which functions as a microcosm as a way to talk about the city, immigration, assimilation, poverty and the urgent needs of strangers stacked up on top of one another competing for resources. ..It so deftly, deftly handles character in the combination of reticence and moral clarity on the part of Sima. It’s phenomenal. It moved me. It’s a moving book... That’s why I ultimately chose it as the winner.” —Justin Torres introducing the Miami Book Fair/de Groot Prize 11/10/20
A critique of “The Care of Strangers,” by Ellen Michaelson
Posted December 12, 2020 by Stephanie Oliver
I lived in New York City in the late ’60s. I visited throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Since then, I’ve….stayed in Williamsburg, in Park Slope. I thought I knew New York and Brooklyn. Not by a long shot. In The Care of Strangers, Ellen Michaelson, M.D., takes us to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn…where she did her internship. What she gives the reader is not a memoir but a novel. It is novella only in its length. All the necessary ingredients for a longer work are there: superlative detail, step-by-step action, well-developed characters with backstories, humor and pathos.
The Care of Strangers really holds up as a window on a world. I was jolted by the mix of Polish and English, the sounds, the smells, and the stickiness of Kings County…. I was mesmerized by the details. I can’t help but think of “You Are There,” a radio show my family regularly tuned into during the 1950s. From the first page to the last, The Care of Strangers took me to Kings County Hospital and into the heart and mind of Sima. I was there.