Samuel Shem Books in Order
Samuel Shem has written 10 books, published between 1978 and 2023. The first book is The House of God (1978) and the newest is Our Hospital (2023). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 10
- Published
- 1978–2023
- Pages on record
- 2,251 in 7 of 10 books
- Reading time
- 38–56 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 2,251 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 7 of 10 titles with a page count on record.
Samuel Shem is the pen name of Stephen Joseph Bergman, an American psychiatrist born in 1944. The main works under the Shem name, The House of God (1978) and Mount Misery (1997), are fiction drawn closely from the training of doctors in the United States. Bergman was a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1966, and graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. The catalogue lists 10 books running to Our Hospital (2023), among them Fine (1985), We Have To Talk (1998), Bill W. and Dr. Bob (2000), The Spirit of the Place (2008), The Buddha's Wife (2015) and Man's 4th Best Hospital (2019). Catalogue subjects record physicians, interns, medical education, teaching hospitals, psychiatry and psychoanalysis.
How many Samuel Shem books are there?
Samuel Shem has 10 books, released between 1978 and 2023. 3 of them belong to the House of God series.
Samuel Shem Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 10 Samuel Shem books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 119783801/4
- 2Fine1985 · confirmed 1/41985–1/4
- 3Mount Misery1997 · 576 pages · confirmed 1/419975761/4
- 4We Have To Talk1998 · 225 pages · confirmed 1/419982251/4
- 5Bill W. and Dr. Bob2000 · 96 pages · confirmed 1/42000961/4
- 6The Spirit of the Place2008 · confirmed 1/42008–1/4
- 7The Buddha's Wife2015 · 283 pages · confirmed 1/420152831/4
- 8At the Heart of the Universe2015 · 322 pages · confirmed 1/420153221/4
- 920193691/4
- 102023–1/4
Samuel Shem books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
House of God in order
3 booksStandalone books
7 books7 Samuel Shem titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read Samuel Shem books in order?
You only need to read Samuel Shem books in order within the House of God series, which holds 3 of the 10 Samuel Shem books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.
Where to start with Samuel Shem
Start with The House of God (1978), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Samuel Shem book?
Our Hospital (2023) is the newest Samuel Shem book released so far.
Is there a new Samuel Shem book coming?
No next Samuel Shem book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Samuel Shem at a glance
- Paused
- No new Samuel Shem title has appeared for 3 years. The last was published in 2023.
- Release pace
- Samuel Shem books have appeared about one every 5 years on average.
- Length
- 2,251 pages across the 7 of 10 books with a recorded length, a median of 322 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Samuel Shem books, 3 of 10, were published in the 2010s.
What the Samuel Shem books are about
9 of the 10 Samuel Shem books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: physicians is tagged on 3 of 9. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Physicians 3 of 9 books
- American literature 2 of 9 books
- Fictional Works 2 of 9 books
- Interns (Medicine) 2 of 9 books
- Medical education 2 of 9 books