-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Doctor, an Emergency Room, and a City Under Siege
by Robert Meyer MD
An urgent, on-the-scene account of chaos and compassion on the front lines of ground zero for Covid-19, from a senior doctor at New York City's busiest emergency room.
When former New York Times journalist Dan Koeppel texted his cousin Robert Meyer, a twenty-year veteran of the emergency room at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis in the United States, he expected to hear that things were hectic. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being overwhelmed, where do you think you are? Koeppel asked. Meyer's grave reply—100—was merely the cusp of the crisis that would soon touch every part of the globe.
In need of an outlet to process the trauma of his working life over the coming months, Meyer continued to update Koeppel with what he'd seen and whom he'd treated. The result is an intimate record of historic turmoil and grief from the perspective of a remarkably resilient ER doctor. Every Minute Is a Day takes us into a hospital ravaged by Covid-19 and is filled with the stories of promises made that may be impossible to keep, of life or death choices for patients and their families, and of selflessness on the part of medical professionals who put themselves at incalculable risk.
As fast-paced and high-tempo as the ER in which it takes place, Every Minute Is a Day is at its core an incomparable firsthand account of unrelenting compassion, and a reminder that every human life deserves a chance to be saved.
"A riveting firsthand account of the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic ... This is hard-hitting nonfiction in the vein of Five Days at Memorial. Its re-creation of an atmosphere of daily panic and uncertainty makes it as absorbing as any thriller." —Shelf Awareness (starred review)
"[A] heart-wrenching report ... The authors capture the ad hoc response of even the most skilled doctors to an unprecedented calamity ... and raise hard questions about the U.S. health-care system's lack of preparedness. Readers will gain a visceral appreciation for what it took to battle the first wave of the pandemic." —Publishers Weekly
"[Every Minute Is a Day] isn't only a document of trauma; it also notes moments of joy... . [T]his memoir and sociological account enlightens, reminds us how far we have come, and is a model for practicing gratitude." —Library Journal
"A dramatic first-person account of the doctor's experience during the first six months of the pandemic ... The testimonies are moving and heartbreaking, delivering a realistic portrait of a city hospital in crisis... . Touching evidence of compassion and sacrifice during the worst of the pandemic." —Kirkus Reviews
"A gripping, cinematic page-turner that will transport you to the front lines and remind you how we are all connected... . What Atul Gawande's Being Mortal did for our compassion toward aging, Every Minute Is a Day will do for emergency medicine and all who aspire to understand or practice it." —Lisa Napoli, author of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie
"I was captured by Every Minute Is a Day. It gave me an intimate, inside look at what the pandemic has been like for those fighting it on the front lines. The war metaphor is apt—the narrative reads with the tension and urgency of a war novel." —Philip Caputo, author of A Rumor of War
This information about Every Minute Is a Day 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.
Robert Meyer, MD has been an emergency room doctor for over twenty-five years, spending most of his career at the Bronx's Montefiore Medical Center, whose emergency rooms are New York City's most visited, and among the nation's five busiest. He is as well an associate professor of emergency medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Meyer grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Hartsdale, New York, with his wife, Janet. He has two grown children, one in college and one in medical school.
Dan Koeppel is a former executive editor at The New York Times's Wirecutter. He has written for national publications including Wired, Outside, National Geographic, and The Atlantic and has won a James Beard Award for his food writing. Koeppel is also a recipient of a National Geographic Expeditions Grant. His screenwriting credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, and he is the author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. His writing has been anthologized three times in the Best American series. He grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife, the writer Kalee Thompson, and his two young boys.
If you liked Every Minute Is a Day, try these:
A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe
by Mahogany L.. Browne
Published 2026
In this poignant mixed voice, mixed form collection of interconnected prose, poems and stories, teen characters, their families, and their communities grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst fear and loss, these New York City teens prevail with love, resilience and hope. From the award-winning author of Chlorine Sky and Vinyl Moon.
Grief, ...
by Jodi Picoult
Published 2019
A powerful and provocative new novel about ordinary lives that intersect during a heart-stopping crisis.
by Henry Marsh
Published 2016
An unforgettable insight into the countless human dramas that take place in a busy modern hospital, and a lesson in the need for hope when faced with life's most difficult decisions.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
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.
