The Silence Between Two Heartbeats has been added to the collection of the Francis A.
Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and its record is now live in Harvard’s public library catalog.
The placement puts the book in one of the most important medical libraries in the world.
The Countway Library brings together the collections of the Harvard Medical Library, dating from 1816, and the Boston Medical Library, founded in 1875, and is described as the largest academic medical library in the world.
It serves Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the Boston Medical Library, and the Massachusetts Medical Society, and holds more than 630,000 volumes.
Leonard L.
Levin, Interim Director of the Countway Library, confirmed that processing of the donated copy was complete.
In earlier correspondence, the library said the book was the kind of material Countway seeks to collect.
During cataloging, the library considered subject headings including neonatology, neonatal intensive care, fathers, newborn infants, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), neonatal seizures, and caregiving.
Told from a father’s perspective, the book follows a family through a newborn medical emergency, time in the NICU, and the neurological uncertainty that followed.
It is presented as narrative nonfiction, not medical guidance.
The catalog may briefly show the book as unavailable while construction affects the library’s stacks.
Inclusion reflects a collection decision and is not an endorsement by Harvard Medical School or the Countway Library.