Mountains Beyond Mountains

Tracy Kidder's biography follows Paul Farmer, a physician, Harvard professor, anthropologist and infectious-disease specialist who found his calling in medical school: bringing modern medicine to the people who need it most. Kidder first met Farmer in Haiti in 1994. Across five parts the book covers Farmer's clinic work in Cange, Haiti, through the charity Partners In Health, the campaign against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Peru, and travels to Cuba, Russia and Paris, with help enlisted from the Gates Foundation and George Soros. The title comes from a Haitian proverb, beyond mountains there are mountains: each solved problem reveals another. In 2004 it won the Lettre Ulysses Award for reportage.

Richard Branson named it among his top 65 lifetime reads in a list he drew up for World Book Day.