Awakenings - by Oliver Sacks (Paperback)

About the Book

With compassion and insight, the doctor who inspired the major motion picture "Awakenings" offers "a collection of astonishing case histories . . . A work of genius" ("The Washington Post"). of illustrations.

Book Synopsis

The classic account of survivors of the sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I--and their return to the world after decades of "sleep." - From the distinguished neurologist and the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

"One of the most beautifully composed and moving works of our time." --The Washington Post

Awakenings--which inspired the major motion picture starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams--is the remarkable story of a group of patients who contracted sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I. Frozen for decades in a trance-like state, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Oliver Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, "awakening" effect. Dr. Sacks recounts the moving case histories of his patients, their lives, and the extraordinary transformations which went with their reintroduction to a changed world.

From the Back Cover

Awakenings -- which inspired the major motion picture -- is the remarkable story of a group of patients who contracted sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I. Frozen for decades in a trancelike state, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Oliver Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, "awakening" effect. Dr. Sacks recounts the moving case histories of his patients, their lives, and the extraordinary transformations which went with their reintroduction to a changed world.

Review Quotes

"One of the most beautifully composed and moving works of our time." --The Washington Post

"Compulsively readable. . . . Dr. Sacks writes beautifully and with exceptional subtlety and penetration into both the state of mind of his patients and the nature of illness generally. . . . A brilliant and humane book." --A. Alvarez, The Observer

"[Sacks] opens to the reader doors of perception generally passed through only by those at the far borders of human experience." --The Boston Globe

"A masterpiece." --W. H. Auden

About the Author

OLIVER SACKS was a neurologist, writer, and professor of medicine. Born in London in 1933, he moved to New York City in 1965, where he launched his medical career and began writing case studies of his patients. Called the "poet laureate of medicine" by The New York Times, Sacks is the author of thirteen books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Awakenings, which inspired an Oscar-nominated film and a play by Harold Pinter. He was the recipient of many awards and honorary degrees, and was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2008 for services to medicine. He died in 2015.