Author's visit caps new UW program

Author Tracy Kidder has lost count of the number of colleges around the country that have chosen his book, "Mountains Beyond Mountains," as a common text for the campus community.

"It's something like 40," said the Pulitzer Prize-winning author in a phone interview Friday from his home near Northampton, Mass. "It's kind of nice for me, and it keeps the publisher happy. ... I've had to stop going to all of them, though. I hate to fly."

Kidder will visit Seattle on Tuesday, however, to speak to more than 700 students, staff and faculty members at the University of Washington. The UW picked "Mountains Beyond Mountains" as its inaugural "common book" — asking the 5,400 freshmen who started school last fall to read it.

Since then, students and faculty have found various ways to engage with the book — some theater students were even inspired to put on a performance.

Given that most students weren't specifically graded on the book, surveys show readership has been "beyond our expectations," said Ed Taylor, dean of undergraduate academic affairs: "We are still getting the numbers now, but it looks like near 50 percent of freshmen read it."

The UW plans to make choosing a "common book" an annual event. Taylor said that next fall's book will be chosen within a few weeks. A group of faculty members, students and library representatives has already winnowed an initial list of more than a dozen titles down to three finalists.

"One of the criteria is that the book has to be not-put-down-able," Taylor said.

Kidder's 2003 book chronicles the true story of Dr. Paul Farmer and his efforts to improve health in a desperately poor village in Haiti and beyond. As part of the UW's Common Book program, Farmer spoke to students on campus last fall.

Kidder, 61, said he's noticed that some students have connected with Farmer's story because they are hungry for something that "smacks of meaning" in today's world.

"This has to be the most meretricious era in human history," Kidder said. "A lot of young people are finding the world so empty, even with all of this stuff in it."

Kidder said that in his recent travels around college campuses he has been particularly inspired by a student he met at Stanford University, Jonny Dorsey. After traveling in Africa, Dorsey decided to take time off from studying and has led a campaign to raise $1 million at U.S. colleges to fight AIDS in Africa, Kidder said.

The author described meeting Farmer and spending time with him as "exhilarating." Farmer, a Harvard physician, has worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle on projects.

"He's a very interesting person, and I don't expect to ever meet anyone like him again," Kidder said. "In the book I tried to muster everything I could to make him less than saintly, to make him as real as he is. But he's a wonderful person to spend time with, by and large. He's considerate, irreverent — and when you get sick, he takes care of you."

Kidder's visit comes as the UW ramps up its efforts in public health. It created a Department of Global Health last year and is considering creating an ambitious global-health institute. Both efforts would rely largely on money from the Gates Foundation.

Kidder said he's working on another nonfiction book, this one about Central Africa.

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com