cover image The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Siddhartha Mukherjee, read by Stephen Hoye, Tantor Audio, unabridged, 16 CDs, 20.5 hrs., $49.99 ISBN 978-1-4001-1917-2

Mukherjee's magisterial history of cancer research is poorly served by Stephen Hoye's impersonal, tone-deaf narration. Mukherjee is a practicing oncologist, and his is a deeply personal account, replete with stories of his own patients and practice, that begs for an intimate reading. But Hoye is pedantic, dry, stentorian—everything that this book isn't—and his newscaster's delivery cannot convey the author's compassion for his patients or the suspense and thrill of scientific discovery that the book so brilliantly describes. A Scribner hardcover. (Nov.)