The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is "an extraordinary achievement" (The New Yorker)--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.

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.

Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 11/16/2010
Pages: 592
Weight: 1.96lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.50w x 1.50d
ISBN: 9781439107959


Award: National Book Critics Circle Award - Finalist
Award: L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist
Award: Discover Great New Writers - Third Place
Award: Books for a Better Life - Winner
Award: Indies Choice Book Awards - Finalist
Award: Pulitzer Prize - Winner
Award: Lukas Prize Project - Finalist
Award: Literary Award - Winner
Award: ALA Notable Books - Winner
Award: Guardian First Book Award - Winner


Review Citation(s):
People Weekly 03/28/2011 pg. 63
Entertainment Weekly 05/06/2011 pg. 25
Library Journal Prepub Alert 04/01/2010 pg. 61
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2010 pg. 607
Booklist 09/01/2010 pg. 25
Publishers Weekly 09/27/2010
Discover 11/01/2010 pg. 24
New Yorker (The) 11/08/2010 pg. 78
Entertainment Weekly 11/19/2010 pg. 103
New York Times Book Review 11/15/2010 pg. 14
Entertainment Weekly 12/03/2010 pg. 83
New York Times Book Review 11/21/2010 pg. 22
People Weekly 12/06/2010 pg. 62
Entertainment Weekly 12/24/2010 pg. 117
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/05/2010 pg. 30
New York Times Book Review 12/12/2010 pg. 10
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2011 pg. 7
Publishers Weekly Best Books 11/08/2010 pg. 29
People Weekly 08/13/2012 pg. 49
BookPage 11/01/2010
New York Times Book Review 05/17/2015 pg. 28

About the Author
Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of The Gene: An Intimate History, a #1 New York Times bestseller; The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction; and The Laws of Medicine. He is the editor of Best Science Writing 2013. Mukherjee is an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer physician and researcher. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, and Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in many journals, including Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, Cell, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters. Visit his website at: SiddharthaMukherjee.com.