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Awakenings

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Awakenings

By: Oliver Sacks
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Oliver Sacks
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About this listen

'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 . . .

 Brain & Nervous System Essays Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Physical Illness & Disease Psychology Psychology & Mental Health

Critic Reviews

A brilliant and humane book.
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.
All stars
Most relevant
incredible case studies of human disease, hopefully never to be seen again. the descriptions may be too technical for the lay listener, but the broader picture is beautifully told

a fascinating story

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