Since I was a student at New York’s Stuyvesant High School I have wanted to write fiction. I chose, however, to study medicine and have had a successful career as a pathologist with special interests in liver diseases, autopsy and medical history. I am very excited my first novel has been published. Although it draws upon my life’s experiences it is fiction. A brief summary is below. I hope you read my book and enjoy it.
At the prime of her life, accomplished pianist Marcia Kleinman is forced to make some heart-wrenching decisions. She has a difficult husband, a difficult mother and her little boy, Max, has been diagnosed with a rare liver disease that will likely require a liver transplant. As Max’s health declines, Marcia is faced with challenges testing her spirit, her resolve and her sense of self. Will she donate a portion of her own liver to Max? Will her husband, Michael, support her efforts to save their son’s life or will his controlling instincts and fears get in the way? Will Barbara, her mother, be sympathetic and supportive or, as usual, critical? Marcia increasingly finds solace at her piano, searching for the ever-elusive heart of Beethoven’s Appassionata. Her music is her salvation as she rediscovers her strength and passion dealing with life-changing, and life-saving, decisions while her marriage crumbles and her son gets sicker and sicker.
Brooklyn Transplant
Stephen A. Geller is a nationally and internationally known pathologist with special interest in liver diseases, the autopsy and medical history. He is chairman emeritus of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he spent 28 years, and has taught pathology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, at UCLA and at Weill-Cornell in New York. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he now lives in Manhattan with his wife, Kate. In addition to hundreds of scientific articles, book chapters and two pathology textbooks ("Histopathology" and "Biopsy Interpretation of the Liver" in its second edition) his first novel, "A Little Piece of Me," was published in 2014. He has had 6 short stories published. He is currently completing other novels and short stories.
July 31, 2014
Fiction
a little piece of me, Amsterdam, Appassionata, attorney, Beatrix, Beethoven, Brooklyn, Brussels, cadaver donor, concertizing, concerts, diagnosis, fiction, geller, heart-wrenching, hepatologist, hepatology, history, L.A., lawyer, liver, liver biopsy, liver pathologist, liver surgeon, liver transplant, living donor, Los Angeles, medical history, medicine, mother-daughter relationship, music, N.Y., New York, novel, pathologist, pediatric, pediatrician, pianist, piano, sclerosing cholangitis, stephen a. geller, stephen geller, Stuyvesant, transplant, Vienna
September 14, 2014 at 6:31 pm
I love the blog. I haven’t gotten to read the book yet but it is on my list. Congratulations! Joseph Abrahamson sends his best.
September 15, 2014 at 5:58 pm
Are you sure this is fiction? The book brings out some real life situations that many of us have to face with no where to turn but inward as Marcia does. It is a very impressive book calling upon depth of human emotions. It is very inspiring and gripping. Most will read this book from cover to cover in one sitting.
Dr. Geller is not only a successful pathologist but also a great mentor and a very expressive fiction novelist.
May 22, 2015 at 12:44 am
Jaishree,
I have just figured out how to find comments on this page – yours is dated 8 months ago! Thank you so much for your kind and generous words. I am very pleased that you enjoyed my book. I am working on another as well as short stories and this blog.
I hope you and yours are well. I usually run into you at USCAP but our paths did not cross this year. Perhaps next year in Seattle?
Have you had any interactions with my good friend Fred Poordad? He is a wonderful hepatologist and person.
Best and warmest regards to you.
Stephen
August 22, 2015 at 9:20 am
I picked your book up at my local library and once I started reading it last night, I had to finish it at one sitting, even though I was sure that Max was going to die in the end. What a wonderful story and what beautiful writing. The various themes of Max’s illness, the marital difficulties of Michael and Marcia, and Marcia’s growing self-awareness of what her future should look like are seamlessly woven together and propel the reader forward. The medical knowledge you infused throughout the story was enlightening without being overwhelming. Please keep writing. You have a gift and it should be shared.