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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
Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the "master of
the non-fiction narrative." This powerful and inspiring new book shows how
one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a
gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can
to cure it.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor,
Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist,
the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood,
Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found
his life's calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring
the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This
magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations
that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be
created, as Farmer-brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in
international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in
Boston and the mountains of Haiti-blasts through convention to get
results.
Mountains Beyond Mountains 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" - a philosophy that
is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners In Health. He
enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.'s World
Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. 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 the force of a gathering
revelation," says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, "[Farmer] wants
to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change
the way you see it."
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