Dr. Paul Farmer is so busy toiling as a modern-day saint that he forgets to eat. He wouldn't be able to buy food anyway because he has a habit of signing his paychecks over to AIDS patients. Farmer forgets to sleep, too (he averages about two hours a night) -- how else would he find time to shuttle between his hospital in Boston and the relief clinic he founded in rural Haiti? Farmer isn't just a saint; he's a miracle. But the irony is that no matter how many patients he squeezes into his day, he still senses that he's a failure who's bailing out a sinking boat with nothing more than a teaspoon. Set amid the political turmoil and crippling famine of the past decade in Haiti, ''Mountains'' is typical Tracy Kidder -- which is to say, typically great. Like his previous books on technology (''The Soul of a New Machine''), the elderly (''Old Friends''), and American education (''Among Schoolchildren''), the Pulitzer-winning author turns the small details of daily life into a sort of grand, universal poetry.
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