The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Siddhartha Mukherjee
An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here and here . 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 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. From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave cut off her malignant breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee's own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and 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.
- Author
- Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Edition published
- November 16, 2010
- Publication year
- 2010
- Goodreads rating
- 4.34/5 from 118,019 ratings and 9,834 reviews
- Purchased
- June 23, 2016 · kindle
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Edition
- Kindle Edition · 472 pages
- Language
- English
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Science, History, Medicine, Health, Medical, Biology, Audiobook, Biography, Popular Science
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize · General Nonfiction · winner · 2011; Guardian First Book Award · winner · 2011; J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize · nominee · 2011; Wellcome Book Prize · Shortlist · nominee · 2011; National Book Critics Circle Award · General Nonfiction · nominee · 2010; PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award · winner · 2011; Andrew Carnegie Medal · Nonfiction · nominee · 2012
- Added
- June 23, 2016
- Times read
- 1
- Owned copies
- 1
- Goodreads
- Book record