"It's better to ask for forgiveness, than for permission."

If one quote can sum up the complex, brilliant, shockingly real person that is Paul Farmer it would be "We want to be on the winning team, but at the risk of turning our backs on the losers, no it's not worth it." Tracy Kidder becomes Paul Farmer's companion and witnesses an incredible human being with a super human ability to multi task, completely disregard bureaucracy, and be a champion for social justice.

In Mountains Beyond Mountains Kidder tells the story of hot shot doctor Paul Farmer. If there ever is a person that who will leave you with a sense of awe for just what one human being is capable of, it is Farmer. Farmer is a Harvard educated diagnostician who chooses to spend at least 6 physical months of his year in Haiti building a sustainable, self sufficient health faculty. At the same time he finds himself as a professor, diagnostician, clinical researcher, writer, key not speaker, husband, and father, etc etc. Paul Farmer created the international organization Partners in Health which provides health care services in Haiti and several other parts of the world. What I find most impressive about this achievement on Farmer's long list of them is that there is only 5% administrative costs and he has hired many local people in the successful attempt to make them feel invested and better there own lives.

From the very beginning of Kidder's dialogue about Paul Farmer's story you realize that Farmer himself is a man who does what he does from a point of social justice. He doesn't see a reason why the Haitian people should suffer or have worse health care then the members of his family. People are people in his world and they all deserve the same treatment. With that being said, Farmer is no Mother Theresa. He can be cocky, obnoxious and full of himself but these attributes are far overshadowed by the genius and passion he carries through out this world.

This book tells Farmer's life story through the lens of his current person. You see why him creating a science club in the third grade is important to the person he has become, or how his interactions with this parents created the intense personal drive that has led him on his path.

If you want to know about real people doing real good for this world I strongly encourage you to read this book. You will be amazed at how much difference one truly passionate person can make.