Tracy Kidder at the Cambridge Public Library

Harvard Book Store welcomes TRACY KIDDER—Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mountains Beyond Mountains—for a discussion of his new book Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people. He will be joined in conversation by his subject, DR. JIM O'CONNELL—President of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Please Note: This event is now sold out.

A Return to In-Person Events

Harvard Book Store is excited to be back to in-person programming. To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone in attendance, the following Covid-19 safety protocols will be in place at all of our Cambridge Public Library events until further notice:

• Masks are recommended but not required.
• In order to join the signing line, face coverings will be required.

Ticketing

RSVP for free to this event or choose the "Book + Admission" ticket to pre-order the book and pick it up at the event. TRACY KIDDER will sign copies of his book purchased at the event.

About Rough Sleepers

Tracy Kidder has been described by The Baltimore Sun as a “master of the nonfiction narrative.” In Rough Sleepers, Kidder shows how one person can make a difference, as he tells the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell, a gifted man who invented ways to create a community of care for a city’s unhoused population, including those who sleep on the streets—the “rough sleepers.”

When Jim O’Connell graduated from Harvard Medical School and was nearing the end of his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, the chief of medicine made a proposal: Would he defer a prestigious fellowship and spend a year helping to create an organization to bring health care to homeless citizens? Jim took the job because he felt he couldn’t refuse. But that year turned into his life’s calling. Tracy Kidder spent five years following Dr. O’Connell and his colleagues as they served their thousands of homeless patients. In this illuminating book we travel with O’Connell as he navigates the city, offering medical care, socks, soup, empathy, humor, and friendship to some of the city’s most endangered citizens. He emphasizes a style of medicine in which patients come first, joined with their providers in what he calls “a system of friends.”  

Much as he did with Paul Farmer in Mountains Beyond Mountains, Kidder explores how a small but dedicated group of people have changed countless lives by facing one of American society’s difficult problems instead of looking away.

Praise for Rough Sleepers

“What does it mean, in our time of inequality, to care for the vulnerable in ways that strengthen the better angels of our common humanity? Tracy Kidder’s book, and the work of Dr. Jim O’Connell, connect us to unforgettable individuals, who allow us to get closer to the suffering that is only one part of what we need to see.” —Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family

“I couldn’t put Rough Sleepers down till the last page. Kidder’s writing sidesteps labels like ‘homeless’ to reveal the humanity of those who live on the streets. As with Mountains Beyond Mountains, I am left in awe of the human spirit and inspired to do better. That is Kidder’s genius.” —Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

“Rough Sleepers will do for homelessness what Mountains Beyond Mountains did for public health. I’m in awe of this book. I’m in awe of Jim O’Connell. What a compellingly beautiful, inspiring read.”—Alex Kotlowitz, bestselling author of There Are No Children Here