Jerome A. Kessler, M.D., graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1980, completed residency training in North Dakota, and then started a private practice in 1986. He spent the next 19 years taking care of patients in Sidney, Montana, a town of 5000 people, before taking a medical retirement in 2005. He is one of only a few physicians to be board-certified in three specialties: Internal Medicine, Family Practice, and Geriatrics. He is a devoted husband and father. He also loved his patients as much as any doctor can, but had to leave medicine before it drove him completely crazy. His short novel parallels his own life as a small town doctor – who happens to have Bipolar Disorder – and his transition from life as a busy physician to that of a thoughtful landscaper
