The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (Pulitzer Prize-winner) [B0148]

2011 PB. Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and adapted as a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this is a magnificent, profoundly humane "biography" of cancer. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist's precision, a historian's perspective, and a biographer's passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with-and perished from-for more than five thousand years. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer." The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "This book was one of the most immersive nonfiction works I've ever read."; "Scientific progress amounts from vast efforts over time. This book nicely weaved together the stories of different physicians, scientists, patients, and activists to tell the story of cancer in an approachable and engaging way. I found myself getting oddly attached to some of these personalities and mourning their untimely deaths and departure from the "War on Cancer" or scientific discoveries gone unsung."