Prize-winning novelist and cofounder of Doctors Without Borders Jean-Christophe Rufin's new book is a lyrical yet adventure-packed autobiography. His choice of title suggests he's lived his life like a horse that a leopard has seized by the withers. Now the French ambassador to Senegal, Rufin begins to tell his story as he is staring out to sea, contemplating an approaching storm on the African coast. His mind wanders back in time to his childhood and lonely upbringing by his grandparents. His grandfather was a country doctor, and Rufin brings all his boyhood wonder to the portrait of the physician who provided his early glimpse into the world of medicine. For Rufin, the profession would be altogether different due to constant leaps of progress and Doctors Without Borders, which took him to war-torn countries, especially in Africa. This time Rufin has written the near-novel that is his life.