As a surgical pathologist for more than twenty-five years, Spencer Nadler was not content with the distance between his lab and the patient. Meeting with those whose diseased cells he has diagnosed, he offers them a rare understanding. Hanna Baylan is a woman as determined as he is to confront the cancer cells biopsied from her breast. Comille, a young boy with Sickle Cell anemia, has frequent racking pain, but doesnt let it interfere with his gusto for life. And 91-year old-conductor Mehli Mehta inspires comparison between the cellular rhythms that threaten his heart and those that govern his work.In these intimate, lyrical portraits of people and their cells, Nadler brings a unique clarity and compassion to medicine.From the Trade Paperback edition.