The Beauty in Breaking

A Memoir

By: Michele Harper

Narrated by: Nicole Lewis

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A New York Times Notable Book

“Riveting, heartbreaking, sometimes difficult, always inspiring.” —The New York Times Book Review

“An incredibly moving memoir about what it means to be a doctor.” —Ellen Pompeo

As seen/heard on Fresh Air, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Weekend Edition, and more

An emergency room physician explores how a life of service to others taught her how to heal herself.

Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn’t move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman.

In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken—physically, emotionally, psychically. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process.

The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Harper’s journey toward self-healing. Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky: How to tell the truth when it’s simpler to overlook it. How to understand that compassion isn’t the same as justice. As she shines a light on the systemic disenfranchisement of the patients she treats as they struggle to maintain their health and dignity, Harper comes to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to make peace with the past as we draw support from the present. In this hopeful, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along the precious, necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.

Critic reviews

“Riveting, heartbreaking, sometimes difficult, always inspiring.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The Beauty in Breaking takes us into the life in an emergency room—the drama, the adrenaline, the emotion—with such immediacy that I could not help but be completely enthralled by the individual stories of the patients that Michele Harper treats. But this powerful, poignant page-turner of a book also tells a much larger and universal story about how healing actually happens, not just for broken bodies but for broken hearts and souls. In sharing the stories of her patients and her own life, Harper shows us that that healing begins only after we are broken open ourselves. And she shows us with hopeful, heartbreaking clarity that it comes from healing each other.” —Kerry Egan, author of On Living

“The Beauty in Breaking is a compelling page-turner about how Dr. Michele Harper took a broken childhood and wove herself into a strong, honest, compassionate doctor. A must read.” —Louann Brizendine, MD, author of The Female Brain

“Tackling such painful subjects as domestic abuse, trauma, and racism with grace and wisdom, this eloquent book probes the human condition as it chronicles a woman’s ever evolving spiritual journey. A profoundly humane memoir from a thoughtful doctor.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Taking on the painful topics of trauma, domestic abuse, and the ‘ubiquitous microaggressions faced by people of color,’ Harper witnesses the resilience of the human spirit of her patients and begins her own process of self-healing. . . . This powerful story will resonate with readers.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Harper’s words inspire hope and understanding of the importance of peace and acceptance of the past. Poignant, helpful, and encouraging, [her] lessons from life in and outside of the emergency room ultimately teach readers how to trust the healing process.” —Library Journal

“In this illuminating memoir, an African American emergency room doctor finds that her patients’ stories lead her to make connections between her work and the larger world.” —Shelf Awareness

“A book for our times, Harper’s debut is a compelling memoir about her life as a Black woman emergency room doctor and how that work overlaps with the complexities of life. Harper explores hurt and healing, race and gender, justice and hope with candor and compassion.” —Ms. Magazine

“Inspiring.” —Parade

“A moving, beautifully written memoir.” —New York Post

I was expecting more...

I really want to like this book. I loved the title and description promised something profound and interesting. I tried so hard and I really gave it a shot, listening to the entire book. And I liked Michelle. She is someone I would enjoy meeting and chatting over a cup of coffee. She is articulate and well spoken.

It seems like she was trying to go for the eat pray love scene. This was her own meditation and her own message as of course this is her own story. Unfortunately, there was nothing new or enlightening here. I listened to it from start to finish in a few days, it was an easy listen to me. But there was nothing new here. I was left disappointed.

Great stories bring inspiration

I loved the narrator and the passion with which she shared her experiences. The stories were insightful and hopeful. Many thanks for her storytelling gift.

This book resonated with me!

The Beauty in Breaking is a memoir of a female African-American ER doctor who was raised in an abusive home and overcame trauma and hardships throughout her life. I loved the author’s perspective on finding balance and healing in a world filled with suffering. I felt a kinship with Dr. Harper as I had thought about becoming a doctor when I was young, but a traumatic loss derailed my plans and I spent a good part of my young adult life seeking understanding and meaning in the events that had unfolded in my life. Michelle Palmer has also clearly done a lot of self work, using yoga, meditative practice, and general self-care to move through her days with love and compassion for others. I loved her stories of life in the ER as they showed that empathy helps us humans to heal. She is a graceful writer and a special soul. Well-written and well-told, I doubt that you will regret hearing her story.

Fantastic!!

I am a mere 2 chapters in and can’t wait to hear Dr. Harper’s full story unfold. I happened to heard about this book on NPR, a memoir of an ER physician. And a woman, no less! Then to find out she is a black woman—what a rare gem, especially in the field of medicine. As a female Pediatrician, I crave life stories of my colleagues as I know they are likely to be very rich and layered, not just in patient encounters but also in how that person arrived to medicine. I am moved by her story, the suffering she survived, the rawness as she details the darkest chapters of her life. The narration is great. I know this will be a book I send/recommend to my girlfriends & colleagues, especially those in medicine.

Beautifully written

This book made you think about your life, the pause and the little things that we take for granted. I love this book and I will probably read it again. And I most definitely will share it.