if this had advertised itself as a thrilling account of one man's epic quest fighting global bureaucracy, it would have had four stars easy. As a book about life on the cutting edge of virology, not so great. ( )

A fascinating, insightful, often gripping memoir. ( )

This review is of the audio version of the book.

This book is really fascinating, but it is marred by the unfortunate choice of narrator, whose ponderous tempo and patronizing tone are completely unsuited to the actual words that are being read.

This is a career autobiography, so don't expect a lot of family details and such, but the descriptions of the challenges that this passionate doctor faced as he went about pursuing his goal of helping the people who most need helping, are inspiring. The author shows just how hard it can be to be an honest administrator, and how important such people are. He shares his mistakes and failures as well as his successes and honestly discusses some of the unpleasant compromises he made in the pursuit of a laudable goal.

I was particularly impressed with the fact that throughout the book, the author gave credit to other people for achievements which are no doubt often attributed to him alone. Hearing the names of those who have since become known in their own right and those who have not achieved fame was compelling.

I originally picked up this book because I was interested in Piot's experience with Ebola, but this book is much more than a book about diseases. It's a book about human responses and human actions; it's a book about persistence and honor and I was quite inspired by it. ( )