In the Basement at the VA: Stories from a Cancer Doctor

TK-page paperback / 5.5" x 8.5" / ISBN 9781589882133
Publication Date: 5/26/2026 (available for preorder)

Short essays offer lessons in hope and compassion from a radiation oncologist

In the Basement at the VA is a collection of pieces about cancer patients and communication: between patients and physicians, between patients and their families, and between physicians and other physicians. Naturally, patients talk to their cancer doctor about the state of the disease, but they also talk about family matters and personal history. Through this, patients show hope, gratitude, fortitude in the direst of circumstances, disappointment, and, sometimes, surprising indifference. With compassion and candor, radiation oncologist Patrick Tripp explores differences in points of view between the patient and the physician, how to talk about death and dying, spiritual life and God, the physician’s necessarily imperfect decision-making, and times when no treatment is the best option.

Patrick Tripp, MD, is a radiation oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. His stories on narrative medicine have been published by the American Scholar, Threepenny Review, and the London Review of Books. Dr. Tripp lives in Philadelphia, and In the Basement at the VA is his first book.