Fazlur Rahman

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Published by: Texas Tech University Press
Release Date: May 12, 2026
Pages: 312
ISBN13: 978-1682833087

 
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OVERVIEW

A veteran cancer physician, Dr Fazlur Rahman’s story is astonishing. He was born and raised in a Mullah family, an old-line Muslim clan, in a remote village in what is now Bangladesh, with its hardships and heartaches, its myths and superstitions. The people, places and cultures that he was a part of have almost entirely disappeared. The temples, mosques and palaces, though gone, come alive again in this beautifully written memoir.

And the tales of love, suffering and fate of the village occupants are intertwined with Rahman’s unlikely story of finding medicine and success in America. As a young boy, Rahman lost his mother, the heart of his family, and soon after, barely survived kala-azar, a parasitic illness.

The Temple Road: A Doctor’s Journey is an inspiring story of love, joy, suffering, medicine and achievement that takes readers from the jungles of Bangladesh to Dr Rahman’s training in leading medical centers in New York and Houston, and the overwhelming emotions that come with his work as one of the most talented oncologists in the US.

 

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PRAISE & REVIEWS

“I was immediately captivated by the storytelling in this touching and revealing medical memoir, and transported to an almost timeless cultural and historical milieu.”
—Jonathan Balcombe, author of What a Fish Knows and Super Fly

“When I read The Temple Road by Fazlur Rahman, I was hooked. For that is the story of many who have traveled thousands of miles in search of a human dream—to build a better world. It immediately brought me back to my roots in the late ’80s when I came to America to fulfill that dream. Many years later, my own life has been intertwined between two rewarding worlds. This is one book that stands out among the clutter. It will surely engage and inspire the readers. We all have our Temple Road to travel."
—Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, MD, author of Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon

“Fazlur Rahman offers luminous tales of childhood scenes, narrated with clarity and effortless charm. His reflections on medicine arise from a deep conviction in the enduring values of empathy, compassion, and service to humanity. His musings gently but powerfully invite readers to look inward and reconsider their own journeys. The Temple Road is an engaging, resonant story—one that speaks to immigrants, to those in medicine, and to anyone striving to build a meaningful life. At a moment when our national mood feels fractured, his hopeful reminder feels especially urgent: “At the core, the unique American tapestry is woven out of diverse cultures and roots.”
—Azra Raza, MD, Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of Medicine, Clinical Director, Edward P. Evans Foundation MDS Center, Columbia University Medical Center

“For Fazlur Rahman, a distinguished oncologist, writing is every bit as much an act of service as practicing medicine. And like all great autobiography, The Temple Road is for and about its readers, an exemplum of attitudes and virtues that lead to a fulfilling life. Those who accompany Fazlur through the tiger-infested jungle of his boyhood just might find the courage and insight to face the tigers of their own minds.”
—Chris Ellery, winner of the X. J. Kennedy Award for Creative Nonfiction

“In a time when doublespeak and the colonization of memory prevails, Fazlur Rahman’s memoir, The Temple Road: A Doctor’s Journey, is a refreshing balm of deep and crystalline remembering. To see the world through Rahman’s eyes is to remember that the earliest maps we make are sometimes the truest. “I was that seven-year-old boy,” Rahman marvels at the beginning of this beautifully painted portrayal of a man whose self-awareness spans continents and decades. Through his vivid and thoughtful prose, we too are allowed to delight and wonder in our own earliest understandings of what it is to be a self, and what it is to be alive and living in the middle of our own powerful story.”
—Tarfia Faizullah, author of Seam

“The Temple Road is the story of a sensitive, gifted and determined young man who overcomes crushing loss, devastating illness, and humble origins to realize his dream to become a physician. His story is the story of countless strivers who, through strength of character, hard work, and the maintenance of core cultural values, find professional success in today’s globalized society. Dr Rahman writes with luxurious detail, great poignancy, and hard-earned wisdom. If you take this journey with him, I promise it will be one you will never forget.”
—Jerald Winakur, MD, MACP, and author of Memory Lessons: A Doctor’s Story

“A gripping story of a young man who came to the USA nearly half a century ago from a village in East Bengal which was to become Bangladesh. While narrating his tale of how he became a successful physician specializing in treating cancer patients and establishing himself as a highly respected member of his community, Dr Fazlur Rahman takes his readers through some awe-inspiring and exciting events. His recollections as a seven-year-old boy who went through the harrowing experience of his beautiful young mother dying during childbirth set a somber tone to the start of this mesmerizing memoir. His observations and commentary on medicine and society, the cultures of the East and West and fairness and justice clearly establish Rahman as a master storyteller. This is a most welcome addition to our contemporary literature because it proves beyond doubt that it is the immigrant population which makes America great, gives it its moral strength and the diversity it provides, its uniqueness in the entire world.”
—Dr Kanti Rai, MD, winner of the 2014 Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology