-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Doctor's Story
by Pietro Bartolo
The internationally best-selling personal story of "the doctor on the front lines of the migrant crisis" (CNN).
Situated more than one hundred miles off Italy's southern coast, the rocky island of Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees fleeing civil war and terrorism and hoping to make a new life in Europe. Dr. Pietro Bartolo, who runs the lone medical clinic on the island, has been caring for many of them - both the living and the dead - for a quarter century.
Tears of Salt is Dr. Bartolo's moving account of his life and work set against one of the signal crises of our time. With quiet dignity and an unshakable moral center, he tells unforgettable tales of pain and hope, stories of those who didn't make it and those who did. Tears of Salt is a lasting work of literature and an intimate portrait of a remarkable man whose inspiring message rings clear: "We can't and we won't be governed by our fears."
"Equating the refugee crisis with the Holocaust, [Bartolo] has written a powerful condemnation of public inertia to foreign tragedies that brings home a truly arresting 'chronicle of suffering.'" Publishers Weekly
"Though the chronological hopscotch makes it more like a scrapbook collection of memories than a cohesive narrative, there is great hope and poignancy here." - Kirkus
"Through Dr. Bartolo we understand that it is impossible to do nothing in the face of such great human need." - Vanity Fair
"Dr. Bartolo's spare, poignant, angry account of his life as doctor to the refugees arriving on the shores of Italy is an unusual and important addition to the growing literature of migration. Anyone wanting to understand the disaster of what is happening around us should read this book." - Caroline Moorehead
"Tears of Salt is a tender personal memoir...it is also a damning indictment of the broader, collective indifference of humankind to both the drowned and the saved." - Philip Gourevitch
"At a time when our broken world seems to be encouraging, and lauding, the worst of humanity, along comes the remarkable Dr. Bartolo to show us what courage, integrity, and compassion look like. His life is a manual of what it means to be human." - Rabih Alameddine
"Dr. Bartolo tells us about rescuing everyone he can, burying those he cannot, and saving their stories as if they were his own. This is a personal, urgent, and universal book." - Gloria Steinem
This information about Tears of Salt was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Pietro Bartolo was born in Lampedusa to a family of fishermen. He returned to Lampedusa after getting his medical degree, and has been running the island's lone clinic since 1991. He was featured in Gianfranco Rosi's celebrated documentary film Fire at Sea, a finalist for the Academy Award.
If you liked Tears of Salt, try these:
by Charlotte McConaghy
Published 2026
An enthralling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves.
by Garth Greenwell
Published 2025
A medical crisis brings one man close to death―and to love, art, and beauty―in a profound and luminous novel by award-winning author Garth Greenwell.
by Atia Abawi
Published 2019
Narrated by Destiny, this heartbreaking - and timely - story of refugees escaping from war-torn Syria is masterfully told by a foreign news correspondent who experienced the crisis firsthand.
The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
