Emperor of all maladies
Praise for
The Emperor of All Maladies
“A compulsively readable, surprisingly uplifting, and vivid tale. thrilling .”
—o, t he oprah maga z in e
“[An] essential piece of medical journalism.” —T im e
“A meticulously researched, panoramic history . . . What makes
Mukherjee’s narrative so remarkable is that he imbues decades of painstaking laboratory investigation with the suspense of a mystery novel and urgency of a thriller.” —The Boston Globe
“riveting
and powerful .”
—San Fr a n c isco C hr on ic le
“remarkable . . . The reader devours this fascinating book . . .
Mukherjee is a clear and determined writer. . . . An unusually humble, insightful book.” —Los An ge le s T im e s
“extraordinary . . . So often physician writers attempt the delicacy
of using their patients as a mirror to their own humanity. Mukherjee does the opposite. His book is not built to show us the good doctor struggling with tough decisions, but ourselves.”
—Joh n Freema n , NPR
The Emperor of All Maladies
A Biography of Cancer
Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. 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
The Emperor of All Maladies
“A compulsively readable, surprisingly uplifting, and vivid tale. thrilling .”
—o, t he oprah maga z in e
“[An] essential piece of medical journalism.” —T im e
“A meticulously researched, panoramic history . . . What makes
Mukherjee’s narrative so remarkable is that he imbues decades of painstaking laboratory investigation with the suspense of a mystery novel and urgency of a thriller.” —The Boston Globe
“riveting
and powerful .”
—San Fr a n c isco C hr on ic le
“remarkable . . . The reader devours this fascinating book . . .
Mukherjee is a clear and determined writer. . . . An unusually humble, insightful book.” —Los An ge le s T im e s
“extraordinary . . . So often physician writers attempt the delicacy
of using their patients as a mirror to their own humanity. Mukherjee does the opposite. His book is not built to show us the good doctor struggling with tough decisions, but ourselves.”
—Joh n Freema n , NPR
The Emperor of All Maladies
A Biography of Cancer
Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. 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