Malinin has captured what is indeed the "extraordinary" life and career of Alexis Carrel (1873-1944). Carrel was born in Lyon, France in 1873, emigrated to the United States in 1905, and between 1905 and 1912 made incredible advances in medicine. Most of his research focused on how to keep a human organ alive outside the body. In 1912 he was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for developing a practical technique to suture veins and arteries, thus making new and more complicated surgical techniques available to physicians and patients. He wrote several books in English and French, including (in English) THE TREATMENT OF INFECTED WOUNDS (1917), MAN, THE UNKNOWN (1935), THE CULTURE OF ORGANS (1938), THE VOYAGE TO LOURDES (1950), and REFLECTIONS ON LIFE (1952). Carrel counted among his friends Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Charles Lindbergh (with whom he invented an electric prototype for an artificial heart pump). His reflections on life constitute a Christianized elitist philosophy about the future of humanity. He returned to France on retirement in 1939 and continued to write, mostly works on prayer and his various pilgrimages, until his death in 1944. Named in Carrel's honor are the Foundation Alexis Carrel and the Instituto Alexis Carrel--educational institutions which focus on cardiovascular medicine. Malinin's book provides the reader with a comprehensive view of Carrel the surgeon and Carrel the philosopher.