Published in 2010 by Simon & Schuster, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer combines Siddhartha Mukherjee's personal narratives about his experiences as a hematology/oncology fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, together with a thoughtful history of cancer, its research, and its treatment. According to to the author, the book was written in response to the behests of a patient, but one of his acknowledged influences for Emperor of All Maladies is Randy Schiltz's groundbreaking 1980s chronicle of the HIV/A.I.D.S epidemic, And the Band Played On.
Upon its release, Dr. Mukherjee's book received instant acclaim. The Oprah Magazine listed Emperor of All Maladies in its Top 10. The New York Times soon followed suit, and Time Magazine named Emperor of All Maladies as one of the "Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2010," and later among the one hundred most influential books since 1910. In 2011, The Emperor of All Maladies: A History of Cancer was nominated as a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, and on April 18, 2011, the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction was awarded to Mukherjee's book, followed by PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2011.
Since then, The Emperor of All Maladies has been reprinted and translated into a number of foreign language editions, including Chinese, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Slovenian, and Greek. Reviews of the book continue to be unabashed acclamations of, both, Dr. Mukherjee's humanitarian passion and his relatable "biography" approach to the topic, turning what is often considered a forbiddingly dense topic into a lush, literary style of memoirs about cancer. Publisher's Weekly described Siddhartha Mukherjee's biography of cancer as "a sweeping epic of obsession, brilliant researchers, dramatic new treatments, euphoric success and tragic failure, and the relentless battle by scientists and patients alike against an equally relentless, wily, and elusive enemy." The New Yorker heralded the book as "An extraordinary achievement."
El emperador de todos los males: Una biografia del Cancer. Trans. Roberto Serrai. (Spanish) Taurus, 2012.
Behind the Story. The Emperor of All Maladies - Behind the Story (A Book Companion). Amazon Digital Services, Inc., 2013.
Sherman, Fraser. Quicklet on Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. Hyperlink, 2012.
BookRags, ed. Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Summary Guide. Amazon Digital Services, Inc., 2012.
BookRags, ed. Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Lesson Plans. Amazon Digital Services, Inc., 2012.
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