In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most.
Tracy Kidder’s magnificent account shows how one person can make a difference in solving global health problems through a clear-eyed understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth,
social systems, and disease.
Profound and powerful, Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Paul Farmer changes people’s minds through his dedication to the philosophy that
“the only real nation is humanity.”
In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most.
Tracy Kidder’s magnificent account shows how one person can make a difference in solving global health problems through a clear-eyed understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth,
social systems, and disease.
Profound and powerful, Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Paul Farmer changes people’s minds through his dedication to the philosophy that
“the only real nation is humanity.”
Editorial Reviews
Editorial Reviews
“A true-to-life fairy tale, one that inspires you to believe in happy endings.” —People
“An astonishing book that will leave you questioning your own life and political views.” —USA Today
“Kidder’s wonderful book is an antidote for cynics.” —BookPage
“Recounts [Farmer’s] quest with grace and passion…both inspiring and guilt-provoking…the reader’s conscience will likely feel a deserved jab.” —Boston Magazine
“One of our finest writers of literary nonfiction brings his brilliant attentiveness to a Harvard-trained infectious-disease specialist, a real-life hero whose determination to improve health care in Haiti and elsewhere borders on the messianic.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
“Kidder’s words reveal Farmer with such startling clarity that sometimes you are not aware you are reading. Instead, you are scrambling up a Haitian hill alongside a genius. And you can’t wait to hear what he says next.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer
“A treatise on goodness…Kidder, one of the best nonfiction writers living today, is a methodical researcher and a penetrating interviewer. Those qualities serve his readers well here…vivid and heartrending.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Easily the most fascinating, most entertaining and, yes, most inspiring work of non-fiction I’ve read this year.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A profoundly inspiring and important book about one of the truly great men of our time.” —Ethan Canin, author of Carry Me across the Water
“A fine writer and his extraordinary subject: Tracy Kidder, in giving us Paul Farmer, lifts up an image of hope—and challenge—that the world urgently needs. Simply put, this is an important book.” —James Carroll, author of Constantine’s Sword
The central character of this marvelous book is one of the most provocative, brilliant, funny, unsettling, endlessly energetic, irksome and charming characters ever to spring to life on the page…He wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you will see it.” —Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil Action
“Here is a genuine hero alive in our times. Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of gathering revelation. Like all of Tracy Kidder’s books, it is as hard to put down as any good and true story.” —Annie Dillard, author of The Writing Life
“A tale that inspires, discomforts and provokes.” —New York Times
“Mountains Beyond Mountains is the only book I’ve read in years that made me feel like cheering. It left me uncomfortable, guilty, and exhausted—but it also inspired me, kept me up all night, and moved me to tears…Tracy Kidder has given us not only an unforgettable book but an unignorable life lesson. Hurrah!” —Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
“Will move you, restore your faith in the ability of one person to make a difference in these increasingly maddening, dispiriting times.” —San Diego Union-Tribune
“If I ever go on a retreat again, this is the kind of book I’d like to take for spiritual reading…[Kidder] knows it is impossible to live like Farmer, but the impossibility is the very thing that can somehow give us life.” —Washington Post Book World
“This sensitive, compelling portrait just might, beyond its educational value and absorbing reading, spur at least some readers to help with the kind of action Farmer has dedicated his life to. —San Francisco Chronicle
“Remind[s] us that we’re implicated in all the problems Farmer’s working to solve…His complicated humanity only makes him more like the rest of us in our shortcomings—and leaves us asking why we all aren't a little more like him in our virtues.” —Newsday
“This excellent work…beautifully explores the rich drama that exists in the life of Dr. Paul Farmer.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] skilled and graceful exploration of the soul of an astonishing human being.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[Kidder] turns the small details of daily life into a sort of grand, universal poetry.” —Entertainment Weekly
Tracy Kidder has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Award, among other literary prizes. He is the author of The Soul of a New Machine,
House, Among Schoolchildren, Old Friends, Home Town, and others.
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