The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane βbiographyβ of cancerβfrom 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 biologistβs precision, a historianβs perspective, and a biographerβs passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived withβand perished fromβfor 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 βwar against cancer.β The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave cut off her malignant breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjeeβs own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to surviveβand to increase our understanding of this iconic disease. 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.
Media Buzz
PBS News Hour - March 30, 2015 Anderson Cooper 360 - May 21, 2012 PBS News Hour - August 8, 2011 Talk of the Nation - April 21, 2011 Talk of the Nation - April 19, 2011 Today - April 15, 2011 PBS News Hour - February 24, 2011 PBS News Hour - January 25, 2011 On Point - December 8, 2010 Fresh Air - NPR - November 17, 2010
© 2003-2026