David Biro

Two strangers--generations and oceans apart--have a chance to save each other in this moving and suspenseful novel about family secrets and the ineffable connections that attach us. In a small Northern Italian village, nine-year-old Luca Taviano catches a stubborn cold and is subsequently diagnosed with leukemia. His only hope for survival is a bone marrow transplant. After an exhaustive search, a match turns up three thousand miles away in the form of a most unlikely donor: Joseph Neiman, a rabbi in Brooklyn, New York, who is suffering from a debilitating crisis of faith. As Luca's young nurse, Nina Vocelli, risks her career and races against time to help save the spirited redheaded boy, she uncovers terrible secrets from World War II--secrets that reveal how a Catholic child could have Jewish genes. Can inheritance be transcended by accidents of love? That is the question at the heart of This Magnificent Dappled Sea, a novel that challenges the idea of identity and celebrates the ties that bind us together.

This Magnificent Dappled Sea

Three old friends, two secrets, one love--and a whole new beginning. Every week for twenty years, three friends meet in a leafy enclosure under the Verrazzano Bridge: Gertie, a feisty Norwegian divorcée and former athlete; Maria, a family-obsessed Italian American widow; and Corinna, a book-loving, hash-smoking eccentric. Together they sit and watch the sea as the ships--and the last years of their lives--sail by. On the eve of Gertie's eightieth birthday, they realize that time is running out. Gertie decides she wants to travel the world. Maria secretly plots to reunite Gertie and Corinna with their estranged families. And Corinna falls in love. As the three women strike out in different directions, a series of events unfolds that threatens to destroy the most precious thing of all: their friendship. Heartfelt and humorous, And the Bridge Is Love invites readers to travel alongside these dynamic women on the journey of a lifetime in this inspiring novel about love, family, and forgiveness.

And the Bridge Is Love

A doctor who himself suffered through an excruciating bone-marrow transplant aims to transform our understanding of and ability to communicate pain through his deft mixture of compelling personal stories and artwork from patients, along with insights from some of our greatest thinkers, writers and artists.

Finding Words, Compassion, and Relief

The Language of Pain

Pain regularly accompanies illness, as Dr. David Biro knows too well. When he was still in medical training, he needed to have a stem-cell transplant for a rare blood disease. He thought he would be able to take notes on the issue of pain for use as a doctor. What he found was such agony that it could not be communicated to even his wife and family, making him feel isolated in his own separate world. Now an accomplished New York doctor, Biro has discovered a way to break through the silent wall of suffering - physical and psychological - and wants to share it with others. In this new book, which is both a practical and philosophical look at how to put the inexpressibility of pain into language, he weaves together compelling stories and artwork from patients along with insights from some of our greatest thinkers, writers, and artists. Biro's groundbreaking work is sure to help patients' families understand what they are going through, enable doctors to appreciate the needs of their patients, and transform our understanding of and ability to communicate pain.

David Biro

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