Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People

Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People (2023) is by journalist Tracy Kidder. The book profiles Dr. Jim O’Connell’s work with the unhoused population of Boston through the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. Kidder is known for his literary style and thorough research methods. In Rough Sleepers, Kidder accompanies Dr. O’Connell on vans through the streets of Boston as he treats patients and offers them food, clothing, and transport to shelters or hospitals. This nonfiction book explores how health care contributes to and is permeated by class and houselessness in the Northeastern United States.

Kidder received the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine (1981), the story of a team of computer engineers with an obsessive work ethic who developed a 32-bit minicomputer in a year.

This study guide refers to the hardcover first edition of the book published by Random House.

Content Warning: This study guide mentions instances of extreme violence such as rape, domestic violence, and childhood sexual assault, as well as depictions of grievous injury, illness, and substance abuse. It also mentions extreme injustices like racism, classism, and anti-gay bias.