Description

Book Synopsis

'The story of a disease that plunged its victims into a prison of viscous time, and the drug that catapulted them out of it' – Guardian

Hailed as a medical classic, and the subject of a major feature film as well as radio and stage plays and various TV documentaries, Awakenings by Oliver Sacks is the extraordinary account of a group of twenty patients.

Rendered catatonic by the sleeping-sickness epidemic that swept the world just after the First World War, all twenty had spent forty years in hospital: motionless and speechless; aware of the world around them, but exhibiting no interest in it – until Dr Sacks administered the then-new drug, L-DOPA, which caused them, temporarily, to awake from their decades-long slumber . . .



Trade Review
A brilliant and humane book. * Observer *
It makes you aware of what a knife edge we live on. -- Doris Lessing
Not only a collection of astonishing case histories, Awakenings is also a memoir, a moral essay and a romance. It is a work of genius. * Washington Post *

Awakenings

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    A Paperback / softback by Oliver Sacks

    £10.44

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    RRP £10.99 – you save £0.55 (5%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Fri 2 Oct 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Pan Macmillan
      Published 20 April 2023
      ISBN-13 9781529087437
      978-1529087437
      ISBN-10 1529087430
      Also in:
      Biography Essays Education Health & Wellbeing Popular psychology Neurology and clinical neurophysiology Self Help & Mindfulness Books by Oliver Sacks

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      'The story of a disease that plunged its victims into a prison of viscous time, and the drug that catapulted them out of it' – Guardian

      Hailed as a medical classic, and the subject of a major feature film as well as radio and stage plays and various TV documentaries, Awakenings by Oliver Sacks is the extraordinary account of a group of twenty patients.

      Rendered catatonic by the sleeping-sickness epidemic that swept the world just after the First World War, all twenty had spent forty years in hospital: motionless and speechless; aware of the world around them, but exhibiting no interest in it – until Dr Sacks administered the then-new drug, L-DOPA, which caused them, temporarily, to awake from their decades-long slumber . . .



      Trade Review
      A brilliant and humane book. * Observer *
      It makes you aware of what a knife edge we live on. -- Doris Lessing
      Not only a collection of astonishing case histories, Awakenings is also a memoir, a moral essay and a romance. It is a work of genius. * Washington Post *

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