Author | Tracy Kidder |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Non-fiction, Physicians, Biography, Missionaries, Health Care |
Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 2003 |
Media type | Print Paperback |
Pages | 317 p. (US paperback edition) |
ISBN | 978-0-8129-7301-3 (US paperback edition) |
OCLC | 60527236 |
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World (2003) is a non-fiction, biographical work by American writer Tracy Kidder. The book traces the life of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer with particular focus on his work fighting tuberculosis in Haiti, Peru and Russia.
The book is written from the view of author Tracy Kidder. It is set mainly in Haiti and Boston, Massachusetts. Kidder first met his subject, Dr. Paul Farmer, in Haiti in 1994. [1]
Farmer was born in Massachusetts and grew up as one of six children in a poor household in Florida. He studied at Duke and Harvard, where he earned his M.D and Ph.D. [1] The rest of the book details Farmer's life and accomplishments, including his work with the health and social justice organization Partners in Health, especially in Haiti, Peru, and Russia. [1]
Farmer died on February 21, 2022, in Rwanda. [2]
Kidder describes Paul Farmer as follows:
The book is primarily a biographical work broken into five parts.
PART I: Doktè Paul
Introduces Farmer's work at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and at Zanmi Lasante founded by Partners In Health (PIH) in Cange, Haiti.
PART II: The Tin Roofs of Cange
Describes Farmer's family background and gives accounts of Farmer from sources close to him. Farmer's dedication to PIH led to the breaking off of his engagement to Ophelia Dahl, the daughter of noted author Roald Dahl and actress Patricia Neal. The two have remained close confidantes, and Dahl has continued to work for the PIH organization.
PART III: Médicos Aventureros
In 1995 MDR-TB claimed the life of a close friend known as Father Jack, in Lima, Peru. PIH co-founder Dr. Jim Kim convinces Farmer to extend PIH into Peru, where they fight against the rigid orders of the DOTS program. This was regulated by the World Health Organization, and largely supported financially by an American benefactor, Thomas J. White.
PART IV: A Light Month for Travel
Follows Farmer from Haiti to Cuba, Paris, Russia, and other locations in his quest to treat infectious disease.
PART V: O for the P
In 2000, PIH learns it has been awarded a $45 million grant, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to combat MDR-TB in Lima, along with other organizations. "O for the P" refers to an expression within PIH that is a shortened form of saying “a preferential option for the poor”. [3]
John Tracy Kidder is an American writer of nonfiction books. He received the Pulitzer Prize for his The Soul of a New Machine (1981), about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation. He has received praise and awards for other works, including his biography of Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist, titled Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003).
Paul Edward Farmer was an American medical anthropologist and physician. Farmer held an MD and PhD from Harvard University, where he was a University Professor and the chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was the co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He was professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Partners In Health (PIH) is an international nonprofit public health organization founded in 1987 by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Jim Yong Kim.
Paul Fleischman is an American writer of children's books. He and his father Sid Fleischman have both won the Newbery Medal from the American Library Association recognizing the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". For the body of his work he was the United States author nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2012.
Lane Smith is an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He is the Kate Greenaway medalist (2017) known for his eclectic visuals and subject matter, both humorous and earnest, such as the contemplative Grandpa Green, which received a Caldecott Honor in 2012, and the outlandish Stinky Cheese Man, which received a Caldecott Honor in 1992.
Jim Yong Kim, also known as Kim Yong (김용/金墉), is an American physician and anthropologist who served as the 12th president of the World Bank from 2012 to 2019.
Ophelia Magdalena Dahl is a British-American social justice and health care advocate. Dahl co-founded Partners In Health (PIH), a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization dedicated to providing a "preferential option for the poor." She served as executive director for 16 years and has since chaired its board of directors.
The Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage has been given annually since 2003 for the best texts in the genre of literary reportage, which must have been first published during the previous two years. The award was initiated by Lettre International in Berlin, and is organized by the Foundation Lettre International Award, a joint partnership between Lettre International and the Aventis Foundation. The Goethe-Institut also cooperates with the project.
Zanmi Lasante is a sister organization to the Boston-based Partners In Health that operates out of Cange in the central plateau of Haiti. The name, Zanmi Lasante, means Partners In Health in Haitian Creole. It was built in 1985 to treat patients who were incapable of paying hospital fees. Services cost the equivalent of about eighty American cents for everyone "except for women and children, the destitute, and anyone who was seriously ill." Additionally, no one may be turned away.
Lake Péligre is the second largest lake in Haiti, and is located in the Centre department.
The Péligre Dam is a gravity dam located off the Centre department on the Artibonite River of Haiti. At 72 m (236 ft) it is the tallest dam in Haiti. The dam was created as a flood-control and an energy-providing measure in the Artibonite River Valley during the 1950s, as part of the Artibonite Valley Agricultural Project. This dam impounds Lake Péligre.
Joia Stapleton Mukherjee is an associate professor with the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Since 2000, she has served as the Chief Medical Officer of Partners In Health, an international medical non-profit founded by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Jim Kim. She trained in Infectious Disease, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics at the Massachusetts General Hospital and has an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mukherjee has been involved in health care access and human rights issues since 1989, and she consults for the World Health Organization on the treatment of HIV and MDR-TB in developing countries. Her scholarly work focuses on the human rights aspect of HIV treatment and on the implementation of complex health interventions in resource-poor settings.
Paul M. English is an American tech entrepreneur, computer scientist and philanthropist. He is the founder of Boston Venture Studio, and previously co-founded and served as CTO of Kayak. In November 2012, Kayak was acquired by Priceline for $1.8 billion. Before Kayak, English had created a number of companies, including the customer service company GetHuman; the e-commerce website-design company Boston Light, which was acquired by Intuit; and the anti-spam software company Intermute, which was acquired by Trend Micro.
Cange is a small remote village in the Mirebalais Arrondissement, in the Centre department of Haiti. Cange is the location of an American funded hospital, Zanmi Lasante, run by Partners in Health. It is accessible by vehicle as it is located directly off Route Nationale 3. Cange sits on the edge of Lake Péligre, created by a large hydroelectric dam. Some notable residents of Cange have been and are Dr. Paul Farmer and Father Fritz Lafontant.
Loune Viaud is Executive Director of Zanmi Lasante, Partners in Health’s sister organization in Haiti. She won the 2002 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for her work with the group to provide health care in Haiti, and in 2003 was named one of Ms. magazine's "Women of the Year".
Bending the Arc is a 2017 documentary film. It tells the story of Partners in Health and doctors and humanitarians, Jim Yong Kim, Ophelia Dahl, and Paul Farmer, who are devoted to innovative health care in impoverished nations. Directors Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos follow their ongoing struggle to treat and eradicate tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in rural areas of Haiti, Peru, and Rwanda.
Jaime Bayona García is a Peruvian physician who focuses on public health and he has become a specialist in studying the epidemiology of tuberculosis. He is also known for his case studies on HIV/AIDS in Peru and other developing countries. Dr. Bayona has also done work on how public health systems should improve, in terms of providing the best approach to help the sick that cannot afford health care.
Thomas J. White was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was a co-founder of Partners In Health and estimated that he gave away more than $75 million to various charities.
Louise Catherine Ivers is an Irish-American infectious disease specialist. She is the executive director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. During the 2010s Haiti cholera outbreak, Ivers led a major humanitarian and public health response, resulting in increased access to HIV and TB treatment, and served as a technical advisor to the World Health Organization.
Michelle Evelyn Morse is an American internist. She is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-founded EqualHealth and Social Medicine Consortium. In 2021, Morse was named the first Chief Medical Officer of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.