WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2011

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2011

'Profound, eloquent and searching' SUNDAY TIMES

'Essential reading' INDEPENDENT

'Masterly' GUARDIAN

'Extraordinary’ NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Riveting, audacious and now more urgent than ever in this vast update, The Emperor of All Maladies is a masterpiece.

The story of cancer is a human one – a tale of chance discoveries, seized opportunities and human endurance. From innovative early surgeries to the Curies’ ultimately tragic work with radiation; from Sidney Farber’s hugely risky discovery of chemotherapy to the author’s treatment of his own patients, The Emperor of All Maladies is a profound and revelatory portrait of an enigmatic disease humans have lived with, and perished from, for more than five thousand years.

In this updated edition of Siddhartha Mukherjee’s instant classic, four new chapters reveal what has changed in the universe of cancer in the years since the book was first published. With moving eloquence, he offers an insight into our evolving understanding of cancer’s causes and the emerging, revolutionary new treatments that might shape its future, including those that Mukherjee himself has helped devise.

‘This elegantly written overview allows us to look a once whispered-about illness squarely in the eye’ INDEPENDENT

‘The notion of "popular science" doesn't come close to describing this achievement. It is literature’ OBSERVER

Mukherjee's work is a testament to the resilience of life, even in the face of the most daunting medical conditions. His exploration of the history of oncology and the latest advancements in the field offers a beacon of hope for those battling this enigmatic disease.

For fans of Atul Gawande (The Collected Works of Atul Gawande), Jared Diamond (The Last Tree on Easter Island), Vaclav Smil (Invention and Innovation), Nick Lane (Power, Sex, Suicide), and Robert M. Sapolsky (Monkeyluv).

HarperCollins 2025

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer