“First Responder is a unique document: a warm-hearted, intimate, unflinching, often funny memoir of a novice EMT in NYC in the months up to & including the onslaught of the COVID-19 virus. Jennifer Murphy is a wonderful writer, baring her soul to us in irresistibly readable prose even as she chronicles a sequence of harrowing emergencies. Think Bringing Out The Dead from a female/feminist perspective.”

“It is rare that a book is 100% necessary. Even rarer is the necessary book that’s also gripping. Jennifer Murphy’s First Responder is that book – it tells us what we need to know right now. The book’s a stunningly written journey into the lives of those we need to thank, and never can enough. I wish everyone in the country would read it.”

“First Responder tracks Jennifer Murphy – both Everywoman and a singularly appealing, hugely big-hearted and fiercely ethical wiseass – on her path to becoming an EMT before COVID hits and she runs head-on into New York City’s tsunami of medical trauma. It’s a dazzling ride full of jaw-dropping sacrifice, outrage, and lunacy that allows us to glimpse the wild gratitude of being able to share such a burden with others equally as selfless and courageous in their service to the greater good.”

“Jennifer Murphy’s First Responder, the fast-paced memoir of an EMT, is primed to act—from beginning to end. The author renders a testimony to the most urgent moments of intervention in the big city. Through this first hand account, Murphy, who is also a keen-witted writer and reader, responds in a language that penetrates through the adrenaline of pain and witness. This speaker, who is always alert, also performs a true reflection, even while driven by the speed and force of a New York City siren.”