Every Minute Is a Day

“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)

“As many have said before, the Covid-19 crisis brought out both the worst and the best of humanity. Here is a remarkable and inspiring example of the latter. Reading Robert Meyer and Dan Koeppel’s book made me all the more grateful for the unimaginable sacrifices and stresses that the frontline medical workers went through. We’re lucky to have this vivid firsthand account.”—A. J. Jacobs, bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically
 
“This book is a tour de force of rupture and repair. It is also a deeply compassionate eyewitness account of a deadly pandemic catching humanity by surprise, forcing us to rethink and reimagine while showing ways to reconnect through shared joys and sorrows.”—Azra Raza, MD, professor of medicine at Columbia University and author of The First Cell
 
“This page-turner of a book is an eloquent dispatch from one of the early epicenters of the Covid pandemic. Sweeping in scope, dramatic in tone, and intimate in human detail, it is ultimately a story of triumph amid fearful anguish and loss.”—Gabor Maté, MD, author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

“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

“[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