Old Friends

by Tracy Kidder

A Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s “touching, funny and inspiring” true story of daily life in a New England nursing home (The New York Times).   Ninety-year-old Lou quit school after the eighth grade, worked for the rest of his life, and stayed with the same woman for nearly seventy years. Seventy-two-year-old Joe was chief probation officer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, holds a law degree, and has faced the death of a son and the raising of a mentally challenged daughter. Now, the two men are roommates in a nursing home. Despite coming from very different backgrounds, the two become close friends.   Focusing on these two men as well as introducing us to the other aging residents of Linda Manor in Northampton, Massachusetts, literary journalist Tracy Kidder examines the sorrows and joys of growing older and the universal struggle to find meaning in the face of mortality. From the New York Times–bestselling author and National Book Award–winning author of The Soul of a New Machine, this is an extraordinary look inside an often-hidden world.   “As in his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Soul of a New Machine, House, and the best-selling Among Schoolchildren, Kidder reveals his extraordinary talent as a storyteller by taking the potentially unpalatable subject of life in a nursing home and making it into a highly readable, engrossing account.” —Library Journal   “Rich detail and true-to-the-ear dialogue let the brave and determined elderly speak for themselves—and for the continually surprising potential of the human spirit.” —Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Sociology, Health, Audiobook, Friendship

358 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

John Tracy Kidder was an acclaimed American nonfiction writer best known for combining literary narrative with journalistic precision. He gained national prominence with The Soul of a New Machine (1981), a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of computer engineers at Data General, noted for its insight into the emerging tech industry and the human stories behind innovation. He later earned widespread praise for Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003), a biography of physician and humanitarian Paul Farmer, which further solidified his reputation for blending compelling storytelling with social relevance.
Kidder studied English at Harvard and earned his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Though his first book, The Road to Yuba City, was a critical failure, he rebounded with a series of successful works exploring diverse topics: home construction (House), elementary education (Among Schoolchildren), and aging (Old Friends). He also served in Vietnam, though he said the war did not significantly shape his writing, despite authoring several well-regarded essays on the topic.
In 2010, Kidder became the first A. M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. There, he co-wrote Good Prose, a book on nonfiction writing. His work continues to be recognized for its empathy, narrative strength, and commitment to truth.