Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has written a number of books of narrative nonfiction, among them The Soul of the New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, Hometown and Old Friends. His latest book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World was a New York Times Best Seller.

How did you chose Paul Farmer as a topic for this book?

I didn't really pick him -- fate put me in his path. I was doing a story on American soldiers in Haiti, and he showed up at an army outpost. I ran into him a few weeks later when we were on the same flight to Miami and we got to talking. I got so absorbed in the conversation -- he was so friendly, so helpful. I saw him one more time after that, and kept in touch -- at a distance -- although my daughter says that I talked about him quite a bit. I didn't pursue him for 6 years -- though I got to know the outlines of his life well enough to believe it probably would be worth writing about.

I think I may have been hesitant about the story because Haiti shocked me. I'd been a soldier in Vietnam, but Haiti was so much worse. I'd never seen so much suffering and unnecessary death, and after I got back, I tried to reconcile the fact of Haiti with my very privileged life, which I thought I had earned. I knew if I started following Farmer around, it was going to disturb my life.

Somewhere in the late 90's, 1999, I started hearing more about Farmer. Just as I say in the book, I heard that he was doing something notable in international health, something to do with tuberculosis. And it seemed to me that I'd waited long enough to try to approach him, and that I'd willfully turned away from a good story. So I did approach him, and he wasn't eager to be written about. His two closest colleagues, in particular Jim Kim, encouraged him to do so. I think they felt, not so much that it would be good for Partners in Health, but it might be a way for them to get a little more attention, and maybe a way to help them raise more money which they are always in need of.

I traveled with [Farmer] for a month and wrote a profile for the New Yorker ("The Good Doctor" July 10,2000) which I think worked, but I was unsatisfied because there were so many stories yet to tell. So I asked him if he'd give me access to do a book and after some months he said yes.

Has your book had an impact on Farmer's work?

I don't really know. But Ophelia Dahl [Partners in Health Executive Director] tells me it that has brought attention, and a lot of fresh inquiries [to Partners in Health.] But unfortunately, a lot of the inquiries haven't been accompanied by checks. At least not so far. It's been a lot of people just wanting to volunteer for Partners in Health, but the problem is that PIH is so small that they are really not set up to take on the volunteers.

You do a wonderful job in the book of showing that Farmer is a human being, not a saint - was that difficult?

Thank you. It was clear to me, by the time I started writing --part of it came from a remark by a friend -- that the reader would need an "everyman." I needed someone to acknowledge, first of all, that this guy is for real, and also to acknowledge what anyone less virtuous is bound to feel in the company of someone who is so dedicated.

But built into this work is a kind of distance. It is an inherently unequal transaction because we're talking and having a conversation about our lives and I'm taking notes and he is not.

What drew you to the in-depth form of immersion journalism?

I started out writing fiction. But when I was at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, I felt that the well that I was drawing from had gone pretty dry. At that time there were people around proselytizing about something that they called "new journalism" -- which really wasn't new -- I thought I'd try my hand at it.

How do you find your topics?

In a variety of ways. Some topics have been suggested to me by [my editor] Richard Todd, or in one case, by his wife. A couple of times I have come up with the idea on my own. Then I've tried to find somebody who can help me tell that story. For example [in Hometown] I met this police officer when I was working out at the gym. He said to me "You don't remember me, do you? Five years ago I gave you a speeding ticket." But then I did remember him -- because he also stopped my wife that same day and didn't give her a ticket. Then I got to talking with him and at one point he said "why don't you come our and ride around in my patrol car with me and I'll show you a side of this town you haven't seen." So I did, and he became a central character in the book. I had so much fun riding around with him that I think I spent maybe as much as a year more than I needed to doing the research [for the book.]

Your books seem to be full of small stories, the stories of people which are then woven into a larger story -- at what point do you find the big picture?

My general procedure is to do the research and then start writing. How I tell the story has everything to do with the story itself. One of the most important things is figuring out point of view. Where are you going to stand to tell the story? Once I begin, I write fast and badly. I don't enjoy that first draft. Then I rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. That's what I really enjoy.

How do you know when you are done rewriting?

You just know. It is much harder to know when to stop researching.

What are you working on now?

I have a book that I started in 1985. I have written a full draft and now I need to begin the rewriting. I don't really like talking about it because I am afraid if I talk about I won't write it. It is a memoir about my time in Vietnam.

Who do you read? What are you reading right now?

I read a variety of things, fiction, nonfiction, poetry -- whatever comes my way. I'm reading a number of books -- at the same time -- The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil -- it is an enormous tome, not exactly my favorite novel, but I keep coming back to it. I read pretty eclectically. More and more I am reading poetry. A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to learn Italian, and now I read a lot of the Italian poet Eugenio Montale, a Nobel Prize winner. I'm also reading Garrison Keillor's last novel and Caroline Alexander's The Bounty -- she does such a wonderful job writing about Captain Bligh's reputation and how it got so distorted.