SIDDHARETHA MUKHERJEE’S “THE EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES: A BIOGRAPHY OF CANCER.”

Siddhartha Mukherjee’s “The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” is one of the most important books I have ever read. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, it is an astonishing achievement that traces the history of cancer back over 2,000 years to the present (2009). It is beautifully written, easy to read and understand, informative, and it shines an illuminating light on the many scientists, researchers, doctors, nurses, philanthropists and patients that have all played such major roles in the fight against a disease with so many different faces and transformations… An adversary like none other.

It might be easy for people to want to shy away from a book about cancer, but Mr. Mukherjee’s approach is so uniquely humane, as many reviewers have noted, that the burden and heartache of this disease (maladies) are almost secondary to the information and history that is so brilliantly presented.

A MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT.[image error]