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The Emperor of All Maladies

A Biography of Cancer

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The Emperor of All Maladies

By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
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About this listen

WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2011

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2011

‘Profound, eloquent and searching’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Essential reading’ INDEPENDENT

‘Masterly’ GUARDIAN

‘Extraordinary’ NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Riveting, audacious and now more urgent than ever in this vast update, The Emperor of All Maladies is a masterpiece.

The story of cancer is a human one – a tale of chance discoveries, seized opportunities and human endurance. From innovative early surgeries to the Curies’ ultimately tragic work with radiation; from Sidney Farber’s hugely risky discovery of chemotherapy to the author’s treatment of his own patients, The Emperor of All Maladies is a profound and revelatory portrait of an enigmatic disease humans have lived with, and perished from, for more than five thousand years.

In this updated edition of Siddhartha Mukherjee’s instant classic, four new chapters reveal what has changed in the universe of cancer in the years since the book was first published. With moving eloquence, he offers an insight into our evolving understanding of cancer’s causes and the emerging, revolutionary new treatments that might shape its future, including those that Mukherjee himself has helped devise.

‘This elegantly written overview allows us to look a once whispered-about illness squarely in the eye’ INDEPENDENT

‘The notion of "popular science" doesn't come close to describing this achievement. It is literature’ OBSERVER

©2010 Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D. (P)2025 Simon and Schuster LLC.
Biological Sciences Biology Cancer History History & Philosophy Physical Illness & Disease Science Medicine

Critic Reviews

Praise for The Emperor of All Maladies:

‘A riveting book … Profound, eloquent and searching’ Sunday Times

‘Masterly … at the same time an encyclopedic history of scientific progress against history and a ripping yarn’ Guardian

‘Siddhartha Mukherjee, an oncologist, has a storyteller’s flair for placing the reader in whichever lab, ward or cellular process he describes, having us feel every clinical breakthrough and failure – and the terror of unchecked cell growth’ Observer, '25 Best Books of the Century So Far'

‘The book that many will have been waiting for. This elegantly written overview allows us to look a once whispered-about illness squarely in the eye’ Independent

‘So beautifully written; this is literature, not popular science’ Evening Standard

‘Powerful and ambitious … One of the most extraordinary stories in medicine’ New York Times Book Review

‘What a story – full of quixotic characters, therapeutic triumphs and setbacks, and recent historical events – with all the hubris and pathos of Greek tragedy’ Washington Post

‘It’s hard to think of many books for a general audience that have rendered any area of modern science and technology with such intelligence, accessibility, and compassion’ New Yorker

‘Mukherjee brings an impressive balance of empathy and dispassion to this instantly essential piece of medical journalism’ Time

‘Now and then a writer comes along who helps us fathom both the intricacies of a scientific specialty and its human meaning. Lewis Thomas, Sherwin Nuland, and Oliver Sacks come to mind. Add to their company Siddhartha Mukherjee’ Elle

‘Rich and engrossing … With the perceptiveness and patience of a true scientist, [Mukherjee] begins to weave these individual threads into a coherent and engrossing narrative’ Economist

‘A meticulously researched, panoramic history … [Mukherjee] imbues decades of painstaking laboratory investigation with the suspense of a mystery novel and urgency of a thriller’ Boston Globe

All stars
Most relevant
I started to notice that no women's contributions were being mentioned in this book, except as patients, and when Marie Curie finally made an appearance she was described as a "destitute and penniless immigrant". So I looked him up, and yep, the author is in the Epstein files. Ick..

Gave me the ick

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The balance of objectivity and subjectivity in this book is perfection. As a doctor who is not an oncologist, I found it constantly tugging at my heartstrings and reminding me never to forget the delicate balance between the art and the science of medicine. While science drives innovation and objective outcomes, it is the art of medicine that fosters compassion and the critical reasoning required to achieve the almost impossible balance between treating disease and caring for the person undergoing a cancer diagnosis.

I would recommend this book not only to physicians, but to anyone seeking to contextualise the interaction between cancer and humanity throughout the ages. It becomes clear that the root of cancer is complex, yet it can be distilled into one word: mortality.

Thank you, Siddhartha, for this soul searching experience.

I genuine work off class and distinction.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.