Mountains Beyond Mountains

The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World

By: Tracy Kidder

Narrated by: Paul Michael

Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “[A] masterpiece . . . an astonishing book that will leave you questioning your own life and political views.”—USA Today

“If any one person can be given credit for transforming the medical establishment’s thinking about health care for the destitute, it is Paul Farmer. . . . [Mountains Beyond Mountains] inspires, discomforts, and provokes.”—The New York Times (Best Books of the Year)

In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Tracy Kidder’s magnificent account shows how one person can make a difference in solving global health problems through a clear-eyed understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth, social systems, and disease. Profound and powerful, Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes people’s minds through his dedication to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity.”

WINNER OF THE LETTRE ULYSSES AWARD FOR THE ART OF REPORTAGE

©2003 Tracy Kidder (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Paul Michael captures the book's mix of intensity and elaboration beautifully....Just the right amount of edge-of-your-seat passion....A very good rendition of an important book." —AudioFile

“A true-to-life fairy tale, one that inspires you to believe in happy endings . . . Its stark sense of reality comes as much from the grit between the pages as from the pure gold those pages spin.”—Laura Claridge, Boston Sunday Globe

“Stunning . . . Mountains Beyond Mountains will move you, restore your faith in the ability of one person to make a difference in these increasingly maddening, dispiriting times.”—John Wilkens, The San Diego Union-Tribune

YES

enlightening - a must read/listen for a soulful experience & those medically inclined. enjoyed this!

Excellent Biography of Paul Farmer & PIH

As a former long-term resident & full-time volunteer in Haiti, I of course knew of Paul Farmer & PIH. The compound where I lived for 3 of my years in Haiti housed a PIH Research Clinic. I had visited Zanmi Lasante in Mirebalais. But the listen of this book gave me the insight into the works of Paul Farmer & PIH in a manner that made me feel as if I were there, almost volunteering WITH them. It leaves me wanting more... and that’s a very good thing.

Paul Farmer is the most amazing human

Everyone should read/listen to this story and recalibrate their compassion, priorities and ethos to be at least just a little closer to Dr. Paul’s. He’s so missed.

Inspirational

Dr. Farmer's compassion and dedication to take care of those who are underserved is so moving. I think that his story helps us all to take a sacred pause and examine our responsibility to value every human being.

Changed the way I view medicine

I was recommended this book by an ER doc I was shadowing, telling me it would completely change my perspective on medicine, and he was absolutely right. To say that the story of Farmers life and work is inspiring is an understatement, and this reading of the book was great at conveying the seriousness of the situation as well as what I imagine is the personality of Paul Farmer. Fantastically done.

The amazing person that Dr Paul was

The health is a right to be enjoyed, but all people and that there are many areas of the world where access to healthcare it’s just not available for many

What it means to

I agree with the earlier reviewer that if you are conservative-minded, you will not like this book. In fact, you will hate this book. It offers no comfort to the smug and complacent. It fails to blame the victims and doesn't heap scorn on those trying to help what are surely the most wretched of the earth.
Paul Farmer is exactly the kind of guy to set neo-con teeth on edge. He's a famous infectious disease expert, for heaven's sake. He could be making piles and piles of money and spending it all on big houses and cars for himself!
It might be ok if he were driven by religious fervor but instead he's a secular guy who actually believes that in "love thy neighbor" stuff and doesn't have the sense to know that neighbors are the folks who live next door in suburbia -- not in some dreadful slum in Haiti or Peru.
But for those who don't think compassion is a dirty word, this book will enlighten and move you. Farmer is no saint but he's the most moral person one could imagine. His reserves of energy and will simply boggle the mind. He's almost impossible to describe but Tracy Kidder does remarkably well. Most of us can never be like Paul Farmer -- and in some ways that's a good thing -- but the world is a better place because he's in it. And every day he lives, he continues to make a difference.
Would that we could all have that said about us.
"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." Corinthians xiii. 13.

Shows the humanity behind the saint

If this were just the account of one do-gooder trying to live out his convictions in the face of incredible odds, it would be a very good book. But Kidder also manages to show the human side of his saintly subject, while at the same time tackling issues of world wide public health, the unequal distribution of resources, and a sort of travelog through some of the least-well-known parts of the world. That's what made it an outstanding, five-star read for me.

Mucha miseria en Jamaica

El libro habla sobre la historia de un doctor que pasa su vida entre los lujos de NY y la pobre Jamaica. Ha hecho mucho por estas personas, sin embargo a nivel familiar ha hecho poco. La narracion es bastante buena. Nuestro protagonista se siente un tanto infalible.
A nivel medico trata sobre temas relacionados con las enfermedades de los pobres (Tuberculosis), paludismo, etc.
Es una buena lectura, pesada en unos momentos pues en ocaciones se repite algunos temas.

Fabulous literary work

I had to read this book for college and it is therefore different to my usual reads (more of a novel, and educationally different).
The writing is fantastic and Kidder has a very artful and accurate ability for describing scenes, people and feelings.
The audiobook is fantastic. The narrator is one of the best I have ever heard, and even does foreign accents. Great audiobook overall.