Inspired by the intense realities of illness, loneliness and human suffering during his time in New York City, Dr Ben Bergman, in his debut novel Shocking Late-Night Encounters with Self, reflects on the human struggle to heal both physically and spiritually. Not merely fiction, in this novel he examines the moments when life forces us to meet our truest selves. Having started writing during medical school, it took years to complete, with drafts written in New York, Boston and even Paris, cities that became more than backdrops. “Those places became characters,” he says. “The streets, the buildings, they carry their own moods, just like the people who inhabit them.”

Encounters With Self

The book’s title “Shocking Late-Night Encounters With Self,” highlights the introspective nature. “You think you know yourself,” Dr. Ben says, “until something happens, a death, a trauma, a secret, and you suddenly face parts of yourself you didn’t know existed.”

The novel’s story orbits around two characters: Kyle, a disciplined, scientifically minded man, and Lola, his emotional, artistic opposite. “Kyle is the Apollonian, logical and restrained. Lola is the Dionysian, creative, expressive, unpredictable,” he explains. “Together, they represent the tension between intellect and passion, reason and instinct.”

Their interplay echoes Dr. Ben’s own life, a physician rooted in science yet drawn to the poetic.

Medicine, Loss, and Literature

The novel’s emotional power is inseparable from the author’s medical career.  Years in hospitals have exposed him to both suffering and resilience. “You can’t recover alone,” he says firmly. “Everyone needs a team: family, friends, doctors, therapists. That’s true in medicine and in life.”

The book also bears the imprint of personal grief. The loneliness of losing a partner and the pain of his brother’s death five years ago shaped his storytelling. “There’s a scene where I had to decide if a character would live or die,” he recalls. “Originally, she died, but I couldn’t go through with it. After losing my brother, it felt like losing him all over again. Rewriting that scene was my way of bringing life back.”

For Dr. Ben, writing is a form of healing; an emotional extension of the care he provides as a doctor.

The Physician Who Writes

Until recently, few of his colleagues knew about his literary pursuits. “Only after publishing did I start mentioning it,” he admits. “Sometimes, when I see a patient reading a novel, I’ll talk to them about books. Readers love sharing stories, it builds a connection beyond medicine.”

This fusion of empathy and curiosity defines both his medical and creative work. “In cardiology, I treat patients with substance use disorders. You start realizing that emotions drive behavior. To heal, you need to understand what’s hurting people, not just their bodies, but their hearts.”

On Influence and Balance

Dr. Ben’s writing carries a lyrical tempo, shaped by early literary influences. “Kurt Vonnegut changed the way I saw storytelling,” he says. “He taught me to tell my story, not to shout it, not to overexpose myself, but to tell it truthfully.”

Balancing medicine and art is not easy. “There are weeks I do nothing but doctoring,” he says with a wry smile. “Then I’ll disappear into writing for days. The challenge is real, but both keep me alive.”

A Message Beyond the Page

Asked what he hopes readers will carry away from his novel, Dr. Ben pauses. “That even physicians, people who study healing, struggle with themselves. Everyone does. But you can work through it. The harder you struggle, the harder you must work to heal.”

His compassion extends beyond the written word. Having trained at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, he remains deeply committed to the underserved, unhoused patients, those with addiction or mental illness. A portion of his book’s proceeds will go to charities supporting such groups.

“I owe a debt to the patients who taught me how to see,” he says quietly. “They shaped not just my medical career, but my humanity.”

The Next Chapter

Dr. Ben’s next project diverges from fiction, a nonfiction work chronicling real medical cases and the lessons they hold. “It’s part memoir, part medicine,” he explains. “But even as I write it, another story, a new novel, is already forming in my mind.”

For a man who has spent decades listening to heartbeats, Shocking Late-Night Encounters with Self is his way of listening inward. “It’s about learning who you are,” he says. “And realizing that sometimes, the hardest person to heal is yourself.”

About the Author
Dr. Ben is a practicing cardiologist and debut novelist based in the United States. His first book, Shocking Late-Night Encounters with Self, fuses his medical insight with a profound exploration of human emotion, loss, and self-discovery. Trained at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, he has dedicated part of his career to improving care for underserved and unhoused patients. His writing reflects the compassion and complexity he witnesses daily in medicine. Beyond the clinic, Dr. Ben continues to write, bridging the worlds of science and storytelling.