5-STAR REVIEW: ALL THAT REALLY MATTERS by David Weill

Publication Date: June 11, 2024

Joe Bosco is an arrogant, hard-charging transplant surgeon whose ambition knows no bounds. He pursues his job with a take no prisoners approach and saving patients is not just his job, or even his passion—it’s his religion. After doing his surgical residency, he passes on a job offer from Stanford, instead taking a position at a private hospital in San Francisco which pays Joe an exorbitant salary and where the bottom line is…the bottom line. Joe leaves behind academic medicine, much to the chagrin of his father— a German Jewish Holocaust survivor who is a world-renowned neuroscientist and Nobel Prize winner—and his girlfriend, Kate, who sees Joe turning into a different man than the one she met at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Bosco makes it to the top as a star in the transplant world but soon realizes that the new world he inhabits is fraught with moral and ethical transgressions, some his partners commit and, eventually, some he commits. When the hospital administration sides against Joe in an operating room catastrophe, he is isolated, left with a career in shambles, a girlfriend who wants nothing to do with him, and a father who can’t hide his disappointment.

It is not until his life spins out of control that Joe must come to terms with his own failings and find his true purpose in life…in the most unlikely of places.

From an early age, Dr. Joe Bosco has tried to live up to the expectations set by his demanding father, only to fall short.

His story unfolds in a first-person narrative beginning with his graduation from medical school. From there, author David Weill traces the young transplant surgeon’s actions in All That Really Matters.

Because Joe’s accomplishments have never seemed good enough for his father, he pushes himself harder to achieve more. Along the way, he and his girlfriend find themselves at a crossroads because of career demands.

When Joe joins a lucrative private practice transplant team, the underbelly of the industry becomes evident. His efforts to succeed put patients at risk, ultimately ending in a tragedy.

While his career crashes and burns, there’s an in-depth focus on relationships. Joe’s efforts to chart a new path forward provide plenty of challenges, leaving readers to cheer him on.

All That Really Matters centers around a young surgeon’s attempts to satisfy expectations that are unattainable, causing him to lose sight of his passion for helping others.

Dr. Weill is the former Director of the Center for Advanced Lung Disease and Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program at Stanford UniversityMedical Center. He is currently the Principal of the Weill Consulting Group which focuses on improving the delivery of pulmonary, ICU, and transplant care.

Dr. Weill’s writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal,USA Today, Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, The Hill, and the Los Angeles Times. He also has appeared on Fox, CNN, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Weill’s memoir Exhale: Hope, Healing, and A Life in Transplant was published in May of 2021. His debut novel, All That Really Matters, will be published in June of 2024.

Dr. Weill divides his time between New Orleans and Alys Beach, FL with his wife Jackie and two daughters, Hannah and Ava, and their dogs, Lucy and Frannie.