Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World

Paul Farmer’s globetrotting travels constitute much of Mountains Beyond Mountains, and Farmer joins him on several trips. In fact, as Kidder recounts, Farmer lived a nomadic lifestyle even before his medical career. He was born in Massachusetts, but his family moved to the American South: first to Birmingham, Alabama, during the height of the civil rights movement, and then to a bus and boat on Florida’s west coast. Farmer then attended Duke University in North Carolina.

Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, one of the most-developed countries in the Caribbean. The island neighbors Cuba, whose medical capabilities and standard of living Farmer praises, and the US territory of Puerto Rico. The Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, lies on the west coast, and reaching Zanmi Lasante in the central town of Cange requires several hours of driving on Highway 3’s rugged terrain. Traveling from Boston to Haiti requires an exchange in Miami, Florida.

Partners in Health expands into Lima, Peru, on the west coast of South America. While Lima appears to be a modern city on the surface, PIH focuses on the Carabayllo neighborhood, where many residents are rural refuges. Farmer also treats MDR-TB outbreaks in Russian prisons and notes the challenges of moving patients without infecting others in the vast province of Siberia.