三民網路書店 2010年紐約時報年度好書
2011年普立茲獎非文學類得主
2011年英國衛報新人獎得主
出版至今持續盤踞紐約時報暢銷排行榜中
本書是精彩而深刻人性化的癌症「傳記」，從數千年前首篇記載的文獻，到二十世紀的治療與控制；從征服它如史詩般壯烈的戰役，到對它本質的全新理解。穆克吉身為醫師、研究員和奪得大獎的科學作家，以分子生物學者的精準，歷史學家的視野和傳記作家的熱情來檢視癌症，創作出這本既流暢又深入淺出的癌症疾病史。
癌症史是集合人類聰明才智、彈性與毅力的傳奇，但也是交織了人類傲慢、顢頇和誤解的故事。穆克吉細數幾世紀以來的發現、挫折、勝利和死亡；透過前輩和同僚的眼光，細述人類如何集眾人之智慧，對抗一個三十年前人們以為可以輕易征服的勁敵，但如今世人才發現，這個敵人不僅資源無限，實力也很強大。
本書不僅讓讀者一窺未來癌症治療的堂奧，而對於尋求解開癌症之謎的人，除了可從書中清晰勾勒出癌症面貌之外，也能從中感受到希望的力量。
The Emperor of All Maladies is 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.
From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave may have cut off her diseased breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee’s own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease.
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.
★本書中譯版《萬病之王》由時報出版。
作者簡介
辛達塔．穆克吉Siddhartha Mukherjee
哥倫比亞大學醫學中心癌症醫師、哥倫比亞大學醫學院副教授。畢業於史丹福大學、牛津大學和哈佛醫學院。他的文章散見於《自然》（Nature）、《新英格蘭醫學期刊》（The New England Journal of Medicine）、《紐約時報雜誌》（The New York Times Magazine）和《新共和》（The New Republic）等刊物。他偕妻女定居於紐約。
Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher. His book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction. Mukherjee is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters.
