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Michael M. Meguid

Goodreads Author

Website

https://linktr.ee/a_surgeons_tale

Genre

Biography, Historical Fiction, Memoir

Member Since

July 2017

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Michael M. Meguid, MD, PhD, FACS, MFA was born in Cairo into a family caught between two worlds. His father was Egyptian, his mother German. Before he was twelve years old, he had lived through post-war Hamburg, cold rainy Manchester, and the warmth of Cairo again, absorbing cultures and languages while carrying wounds that would take decades to name.

It was at eleven, staring at his own gangrenous appendix in a glass jar on a hospital bedside table, that he first felt the pull of surgery. That curiosity never left him.
He trained at University College Hospital Medical School in London, won a travel scholarship to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and completed his surgical residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital at Harvard. He a ...more

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Michael M. Meguid’s books

Average rating: 4.6 · 150 ratings · 73 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	Roots & Branches: A Family Saga Like No Other (A Surgeon's Tale Book 1) 4.51 avg rating — 72 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Great Joys, Great Sorrows: An Immigrant’s Journey through Surgical Residency (A Surgeon's Tale Book 4) 4.74 avg rating — 39 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mastering the Knife: Seeking Identity & Finding Belonging (A Surgeon's Tale Book 2) 4.60 avg rating — 20 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Surgeon & Lover: Fulfillment & Folly (A Surgeon's Tale Book 3) 4.63 avg rating — 19 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Roots & Branches: A Family Saga Like No Other 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Great Joys, Great Sorrows: An Immigrant’s Journey through Surgical Residency 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Great Joys, Great Sorrows: An Immigrant’s Journey Through Surgical Residency: A Surgeon's Tale, Book 4 by Michael M. Meguid (Goodreads Author), Michael M. Meguid MD, David Sweeney-Bear (Goodreads Author) (Narrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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9 posts
Michael M. Meguid's Blog

# The Golden Era of Surgery: What 1970s Harvard Operating Rooms Can Teach Modern Medicine

Before duty-hour limits, before laparoscopes, before electronic records, there was the golden era of American surgery. *A Surgeon's Tale* is one of the last first-person accounts of it.

## What was surgery like in the 1970s?

Residents lived in the hospital. Attendings were titans. At Harvard's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Dr. Meguid trained under Dr. Francis D. Moore, one of the most influential sur Read more of this blog post »

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Published on October 21, 2026 08:14 • Tags: best-medical-memoirs, doctor-memoir, harvard-surgery, immigrant-doctor-story, medical-memoir, surgeon-memoir, surgical-residency, true-medical-stories

View all 9 posts »

Michael is Currently Reading

Michael Meguid is currently reading

Great Joys, Great Sorrows: An Immigrant’s Journey through Surgical Residency (A Surgeon's Tale Book 4)

by Michael M. Meguid (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: great-joys, great-sorrows, currently-reading

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May 07, 2026 07:36AM

Michael Meguid is currently reading

Cubicles, Coffee, and Corporate Candy: Unfiltered True Short Stories from the Modern Business World

by Mohamad Chahine

bookshelves: currently-reading

read in February 2026

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Michael Meguid said: " This author, Mohamad, wrote a fantastic piece here explaining the various experiences of employees in various modern workspaces, offering a collection of sharp stories that reveal the highs and lows of corporate life. Each story highlights a unique f ...more "

Jun 05, 2025 09:24AM · see review

Michael Meguid is currently reading

Letters to a Young Poet

by Rainer Maria Rilke

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Oct 13, 2017 09:00AM

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Michael’s Recent Updates

Michael Meguid made a comment in the group History, Medicine, and Science: Nonfiction and Fiction — Introduce Yourself! topic " Hello from Marco Island: An Introduction Hello, everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into this group. I’ve spent most of my life reading charts, scans, ...more "
Oct 21, 2026 10:12AM
Michael M. Meguid wrote a new blog post # The Golden Era of Surgery: What 1970s Harvard Operating Rooms Can Teach Modern Medicine Before duty-hour limits, before laparoscopes, before electronic records, there was the golden era of American surgery. A Surgeon's Tale is one of th Read more of this blog post »
Oct 21, 2026 08:14AM · like
Michael Meguid made a comment in the group History, Medicine, and Science: Nonfiction and Fiction — A tiny cut used to be a death sentence. What changed? topic " What's one medical discovery you believe humanity couldn't survive without today? I'm curious to read your answers. 👇 ...more "
Oct 20, 2026 09:11AM
Michael Meguid joined the group History, Medicine, and Science: Nonfiction and Fiction
Oct 20, 2026 09:08AM · like
Michael Meguid made a comment on Roots & Branches: A Family Saga Like No Other (A Surgeon's Tale Book 1) — SYNOPSIS: A SURGEON’S TALE " What could drive a four-year-old boy, abandoned by those he loved, to become a surgeon entrusted with strangers' lives? What if the wound that fueled h ...more "
Oct 20, 2026 08:43AM
Michael Meguid made a comment on Roots & Branches: A Family Saga Like No Other (A Surgeon's Tale Book 1) — Would you trust a doctor more—or less—if they said, ‘I don’t know’? " The most dangerous words in medicine may not be “I don’t know.” They may be pretending you do. For a young doctor, asking for help can feel like weakne ...more "
Oct 20, 2026 08:37AM
Michael Meguid made a comment in the group Goodreads Authors/Readers — Welcome Nonfiction Authors and Readers! topic " Roots & Branches: A Family Saga Like No OtherMidweek question for our readers 📚 If you were starting A Surgeon's Tale today, which thread pulls you in ...more "
Aug 12, 2026 07:18AM
Michael Meguid is now following Cheri Simmons and Neon Inbox
Jul 29, 2026 07:26AM
Michael M. Meguid is accepting questions on their profile page.
Jul 11, 2026 09:02AM · Be the first to ask Michael M. Meguid a question

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Quotes by Michael M. Meguid (?)

“We arrived in New York as academic students with non-immigrant visas. Although we didn't see ourselves as immigrants, we had brought all our earthly possessions to America, along with our emotional past and personal histories.”
― Michael Meguid, Great Joys, Great Sorrows: An Immigrant’s Journey through Surgical Residency

tags: immigrant, inspirational, medical, memoir, nonfiction

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Michael’s Quotes

“For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”
― T.S. Eliot

282 likes

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.”
― Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon

tags: home, identity, leaving, life, moving-on, past, travel

1382 likes

“Tis a Fearful Thing

‘Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.

A fearful thing
to love, to hope, to dream, to be –

to be,
And oh, to lose.

A thing for fools, this,

And a holy thing,

a holy thing
to love.

For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.

To remember this brings painful joy.

‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing, to love
what death has touched.”
― Judah Halevi

712 likes

“The first duty of love is to listen.”
― Paul Tillich

165 likes

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

tags: attributed-no-source, human-nature, humor, infinity, philosophy, science, stupidity, universe

149289 likes

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