2. What drives an individual like Paul Farmer to make the personal sacrifices that he does? How and why has he made his life-choices? Can he and his story inspire others to do the same?

3. The people and country of Haiti play a central role in this book. What insights did the book provide that were new to you?

4. Paul Farmer finds ways of connecting with people whose backgrounds are vastly different from his own. How does he do this? Can others learn to do it too?

5. What did Farmer discover about the importance of his Haitian patients' cultural and religious beliefs as related to their material circumstances? Does this relationship apply only to Haiti?

6. Sick Haitians, Farmer believes, deserve good health care even though they can't pay and we honor Farmer for acting on that belief. Why do most Americans in the U.S. not support free care for poor Americans?

7. Paul Farmer is dissatisfied with the current distribution of wealth and medicine in the world. What would you change if you could?

8. Paul Farmer often achieves his goals by subverting policies. For example, he often treats patients who cannot pay the "required" fee; he "borrowed" thousands of dollars worth of drugs and lab services from Brigham and Women's Hospital for his Haitian patients. What do you think of his unconventional approach to problem-solving?

9. Paul Farmer relies heavily on others, including Ophelia Dahl and Kim Jim, to do his work. How are their contributions different from Farmer's?

10. Tracy Kidder uncharacteristically made himself a character in this non-fiction narrative. Why did he choose to do that in this book and not in his others?

Some Suggestions for Supplemental Reading
Paul Farmer has written numerous books and treatises on his work, his philosophy and Haiti. Some of them are:

• The Uses of Haiti
• Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues
• Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor

• The Serpent and the Rainbow, by Wade Davis
• The Best Nightmare on Earth, by Herb Gold
• A Haiti Anthology: Libete, edited by Charles Arthur and Michael Dash
• The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier, by Amy Wilentz
• Restavec: From Haitian Slave to Middle-Class American, by Jean-Robert Cadet
• In the Parish of the Poor: Writings From Haiti, by Jean-Bertrand Aristide
• The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Diaspora in the United States by Edwige Danticat
• The Immaculate Invasion, by Bob Shacochis
• The Neglected and Abused: A Physician's Year in Haiti, by Joseph Bentivegna
• Haiti, History and the Gods, by Joan Dayan

Fiction

• All Souls Rising, by Madison Smartt Bell
• The Comedians, by Graham Greene
• Farming of the Bones, by Edwige Danticat
• The Dew Breaker, by Edwige Danticat

Haitian Art

• Where Art is Joy, by Seldmon Rodmon
• Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, by Los Angeles Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California
• Vodou Things: The Art of Pierrot Barra and Marie Cassaise (Folk art and Artists Series) by Donald J. Cosentino

On Vodou

• Discoveries: Vodou: Search for the Spirit, by Laennec Hurbon
• Vodou Visions and Voices of Haiti, by Phyllis Galembo
• The Book of Vodou: Charms and Rituals to Empower Your Life, by Leah Gordon

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