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How long does it take to read Mountains Beyond Mountains?

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

Tracy Kidder

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder takes about 6 hours 5 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 6 hours 5 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2003. 332 pages, about 91,300 words.

13 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 10 hours 9 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 6 hours 5 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 3 hours 48 minutes

The page count is the median across 31 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life’s calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity"—a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners in Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.’s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb "Beyond mountains there are mountains": as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.

Subjects: Poor, Physicians, Human rights, Medical Missionaries, Right to health care, Biography & Autobiography

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