Mountains Beyond Mountains: One doctor's quest to heal the world

(Paperback, Main)

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Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Strength in What Remains, amongst others.

This compelling and inspiring book, shows how one person can work wonders. In Mountains Beyond Mountains, author Tracy Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who loves the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.

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. Kidder's magnificent account takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that 'the only real nation is humanity.' At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb 'Beyond mountains there are mountains' - as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.

'Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with a force of gathering revelation,' says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr notes, '[Paul Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it.

Reviews

There aren't many real heroes, where the purity of their commitment and the way they articulate those values inspires millions of people ... I can't recommend this book highly enough -- Bill Gates
Affecting...at one the story of an epic battle against poverty and a finely balanced character study -- Wendell Steavenson * Sunday Times *
Quite simply, Mountains Beyond Mountains is a book you should read. It's not smug and self-satisfied, it's not poverty and suffering porn, it's not predictable. It's genuinely touching, inspiring and excellently written. Highly recommended -- Keith Dudhnath * The Bookbag *
An absorbing read -- Julian Fleming * Sunday Business Post *
Inspiring, disturbing, daring and completely absorbing * New York Times Book Review *
A masterpiece that will leave you questioning your own life and political views. It's the perfect testament to a man who continues to reshape medicine and who has become, undoubtedly, an uncommon saviour to a country that desperately needed one * USA Today *
A true-to-life fairytale ... Its stark sense of reality comes as much from the grit between the pages as from the pure gold those pages spin * Boston Sunday Globe *
It'll fill you equally with wonder and hope * People *

Author Bio

Tracy Kidder graduated from Harvard and studied at the University of Iowa. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, and many other literary prizes. He is the author of Mountains Beyond Mountains, My Detachment, Home Town, Old Friends, Among Schoolchildren, House, The Soul of a New Machine and The Strength in What Remains. Kidder lives in Massachusetts and Maine.