Reading List
Doctors Who Write: The Best Physician Authors
Anton Chekhov qualified as a doctor in Moscow and later crossed Siberia to survey the prisoners of Sakhalin island. Paul Kalanithi was finishing his neurosurgery training at Stanford when, at 36, he was diagnosed with lung cancer; his wife Lucy wrote the epilogue to his book. Adam Kay kept a diary through six years as a junior doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology, and left medicine after a delivery that ended with a stillborn baby. These twelve doctors write about what happens in hospitals and in the body, about mistakes, fear and dying, and about what patients and doctors owe each other. Some write memoirs, some write history, two wrote fiction that is still read a century later. Each comes with the one book to start with.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 books · Medicine, memoir & fiction · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
Start with Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal or Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air if you want one book about medicine and dying. The twelve doctors below range from Chekhov and Bulgakov to surgeons, oncologists, neurologists and palliative care doctors writing today; for each there is a short introduction and the book to read first.
The list at a glance
- 01Atul Gawande Atul Gawande
- 02Paul Kalanithi Paul Kalanithi
- 03Henry Marsh Henry Marsh
- 04Adam Kay Adam Kay
- 05Rachel Clarke Rachel Clarke
- 06Siddhartha Mukherjee Siddhartha Mukherjee
- 07Abraham Verghese Abraham Verghese
- 08Suzanne O’Sullivan Suzanne O’Sullivan
- 09Danielle Ofri Danielle Ofri
- 10Gabor Maté Gabor Maté
- 11Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Bulgakov
- 12Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov
Twelve doctors who write, and where to start
Atul Gawande
A surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1998. From 2022 to 2025 he led global health at USAID.
Where to startStart with Being Mortal (2014), on what medicine gets wrong about old age and dying. For anyone caring for an ageing parent, or thinking about their own last years.
Paul Kalanithi
A neurosurgeon at Stanford who was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in 2013, at 36, and wrote about it until he died in March 2015.
Where to startStart with When Breath Becomes Air (2016), his only book. Short and devastating; for readers who want to think about what makes a life meaningful.
Henry Marsh
A neurosurgeon who worked for decades at St George’s Hospital in London and has taught surgeons in Ukraine since 1992. His later book And Finally (2022) is about becoming a patient himself, with advanced prostate cancer.
Where to startStart with Do No Harm (2014). Unusually honest about surgical mistakes; for readers who want to know what doctors really think.
Adam Kay
A junior doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology from 2004 to 2010, who left medicine after a traumatic delivery and became a comedy writer. His diaries became a BBC series in 2022.
Where to startStart with This Is Going to Hurt (2017). Very funny, then suddenly not; for readers who want to know what NHS doctors go through.
Rachel Clarke
A former documentary maker for Channel 4 and the BBC who retrained as a doctor and now works in palliative care. The Story of a Heart, about one heart transplant, won the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction in 2025.
Where to startStart with Dear Life (2020), about caring for people at the end of their lives. For readers who are afraid of death, or grieving.
Siddhartha Mukherjee
A cancer physician and researcher, born in New Delhi and working in New York, whose history of cancer won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011. Some scientists criticised a 2016 New Yorker piece on epigenetics, and he acknowledged an error in it.
Where to startStart with The Emperor of All Maladies (2010), a biography of cancer. Long and gripping; for readers who want the science and the people behind it.
Abraham Verghese
Born in Ethiopia to Indian parents, an internist and professor at Stanford who argues for the bedside physical examination. He wrote two memoirs before turning to fiction; The Covenant of Water (2023) was an Oprah’s Book Club pick.
Where to startStart with Cutting for Stone (2009), his novel about twin brothers born in an Addis Ababa mission hospital. For readers who love big family novels with real medicine in them.
Suzanne O’Sullivan
An Irish neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London who writes about illnesses that are real but have no physical cause.
Where to startStart with It’s All in Your Head (2015), which won the Wellcome Book Prize. For readers curious about how the mind can make the body ill.
Danielle Ofri
An internist at Bellevue, New York’s oldest public hospital, and editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review, which she co-founded in 2000.
Where to startStart with What Doctors Feel (2013), on how fear, shame and burnout shape medical care. For readers who have ever wondered what their doctor was thinking.
Gabor Maté
A Hungarian-born Canadian doctor who worked for years with addicted patients in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Researchers dispute some of his sweeping claims about trauma, and his public ‘diagnosis’ of Prince Harry in 2023 was widely criticised.
Where to startStart with In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (2008), on addiction. For readers who want a compassionate account of addiction, read with a critical eye.
Mikhail Bulgakov
Before he wrote The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov was a newly qualified doctor in a village hospital in Smolensk province from 1916 to 1918, during the Revolution.
Where to startStart with A Young Doctor’s Notebook, stories written in 1925–1926. Short, funny and grim; for readers who like Chekhov.
Anton Chekhov
The great short story writer and playwright qualified as a doctor in Moscow and practised medicine on and off for much of his life. In 1890 he travelled to the prison island of Sakhalin and wrote a report on its convicts.
Where to startStart with ‘Ward No. 6’ (1892), his story of a doctor in a provincial asylum. For readers who want the doctor’s eye in fiction at its sharpest.
Not sure where to start?
If you want one book about medicine and dying
→ Start with Atul Gawande or Paul Kalanithi.
If you want to know what life in a hospital is really like
→ Read Adam Kay or Henry Marsh.
If you are grieving or afraid of death
→ Read Rachel Clarke.
If you prefer fiction
→ Read Abraham Verghese, then Chekhov.
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Frequently asked questions about doctors who write
What are the best books written by doctors?
Among the most widely read are Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, Henry Marsh’s Do No Harm, Adam Kay’s This Is Going to Hurt and Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies.
Which famous writers were doctors?
Anton Chekhov and Mikhail Bulgakov both qualified and practised as doctors. Today Abraham Verghese is a physician at Stanford as well as a novelist.
Which doctor wrote a memoir about dying?
Paul Kalanithi, a Stanford neurosurgeon who wrote When Breath Becomes Air after being diagnosed with lung cancer at 36. It was published in 2016, after his death.
Are there women doctors who write books?
On this list: Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor; Suzanne O’Sullivan, a neurologist; and Danielle Ofri, an internist at Bellevue in New York.
Which book by a doctor won a major prize?
Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011, Suzanne O’Sullivan’s It’s All in Your Head the Wellcome Book Prize in 2016, and Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction in 2025.
Footnotes
- Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
- Suzanne O’Sullivan’s It’s All in Your Head won the Wellcome Book Prize in 2016; Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart won the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction in 2025.
- The quotation is from Chekhov’s story ‘A Doctor’s Visit’ in Constance Garnett’s translation (The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories, Project Gutenberg).
From the bookshelf
“Lonely people read a great deal, but say little and hear little.”
— Anton Chekhov, A Doctor’s Visit
More books I keep coming back to are on my personal bookshelf, and every month one of them goes out to the Night Owl Bookclub.
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I update this list as I read. New picks go to my monthly newsletter first.
