Oliver Sacks, página 2 de 6

"Le isole mi hanno sempre affascinato, e forse affascinano tutti noi" scrive Sacks all'inizio di questo libro. Nell'arco di una "storia d'amore con le isole che dura da una vita", una serie di strani casi lo ha portato a intraprendere due viaggi in Micronesia, paralleli ma indipendenti, che si sono poi cristallizzati nell'Isola dei senza colore. Per uno scienziato le isole non sono soltanto mondi a parte, sempre collegati a immagini paradisiache e infernali, ma laboratori dove studiare in condizioni ideali, come accade a Darwin, gli esperimenti della natura. Sacks racconta i suoi viaggi passo per passo, o meglio salto per salto dei minuscoli aerei che lo trasportano come cavallette da un'isola all'altra.

"E' un libro che vorrei consigliare a tutti: medici e malati, lettori di romanzi e di poesia, cultori di psicologia e di metafisica, vagabondi e sedentari, realisti e fantastici. La prima musa di Sacks è la meraviglia per la molteplicità dell'universo." (Pietro Citati)

Els darrers casos clínics del doctor Oliver Sacks, neuròleg i divulgador científic, exposen un ventall de disfuncions del cervell humà que no només impacten per la seva implícita versemblança, sinó e

These case studies recall the "awakenings" of patients that had responded to L-Dopa after decades of coma-like existence caused by a mysterious sleeping sickness. Rendered in Oliver Sacks' signature style, this book was the basis for the 1990 film of the same name.

'A humane discourse on the fragility of our minds, of the bodies that give rise to them, and of the world they create for us.' - "Daily Telegraph". Oliver Sacks' compassionate tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we understand our own minds. In "Musicophilia", he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians and everyday people - those struck by affliction, unusual talent and even, in one case, by lightning - to show not only that music occupies more areas of the brain than language does, but also that it can calm and organize, torment and heal.Always wise and compellingly readable, these stories alter our conception of who we are and how we function, and show us an essential part of what it is to be human. 'Fascinating. Music, as Sacks explains, "can pierce the heart directly". And this is the truth that he so brilliantly focuses upon - that music saves, consoles and nourishes us' - "Daily Mail". 'Irresistible, astonishing and moving' - "Spectator". 'Deeply warm and sympathetic' - "Guardian".

La música ens trasllada a les altures i a les profunditats de l'emoció. Ens pot persuadir de comprar alguna cosa o recordar-nos la nostra primera cita. Ens pot treure de la depressió quan no hi ha altra cosa que ho faci. Ens pot fer ballar sense parar. Però el poder de la música va molt molt més enllà. Efectivament, la música ocupa moltes més àrees del nostre cervell que el llenguatge dels humans som una espècie musical. Compassius i absorbents, els contes d'Oliver Sacks sobre persones que s'han d'adaptar a les més diverses malalties neurològiques han canviat substancialment la manera com pensem els nostres cervells i l'experiència humana. A Musicofília, l'autor examina el poder de la música a través d'experiències individuals de pacients, músics i gent ordinària: trobem els casos d'un home a qui va tocar un llampec i que de sobte es va sentir impel"lit a convertir-se en pianista als 42 anys; el dels nens que pateixen la síndrome de Williams, que tenen un sentit hipermusical des del naixement; el de les persones amb «amúsia», per a qui una simfonia sona com un concert de pots i paelles, i el d'un home la memòria del qual només abraça només un arc temporal de set segons, per a tot excepte per la música.

Diario de Oaxaca es un libro de viajes muy poco convencional. Su autor, el prestigioso neurólogo y escritor Oliver Sacks, relata en estas páginas la expedición de diez días que emprendió, a principios de 2000, a la region de Oaxaca, en Mexico, con los miembros de la Sociedad Americana del Helecho, una treintena de personas de muy diversos origen y condicion, unidos por el amor a las pteridofitas. Es esta la evocacion de un viaje a un paraje uberrimo -setecientas variedades de helechos crecen en esta provincia mexicana-, y aunque el libro esta lleno de curiosidades cientificas, Sacks, observador avezado, no se limita a la naturaleza. Gastronomia, oficios, rituales y vestigios de antiguas civilizaciones desfilan por la narracion bajo el singular prisma del neurologo. Con Diario de Oaxaca, Oliver Sacks se aparta de su tematica habitual para dejar testimonio, con brillante prosa, de su pasion por la historia natural y su admiracion por la riqueza y la diversidad de la cultura humana.

Oliver Sacks' empathetic understanding and compelling storytelling ability have turned his accounts of his patients and his own life into literature, as evidenced in "Uncle Tungsten," "Stinks and Bangs," and "Cannery Row" from Uncle Tungsten; the Foreword and "Rose R." from "Awakenings"; "A Deaf World" from Seeing Voices; and excerpts from "Island Hopping" and "Pingelap" from The Island of the Colorblind.

Memorias de Oliver Sacks, que hace unas semanas anunció que padece de un cáncer terminal que le deja con pocas semanas de vida.

Oliver Sacks war der beruhmteste Neurologe der Welt. Mit seinen Fallgeschichten hat er uns einen neuen Blick auf Krankheiten und Abweichungen gelehrt: Was bei einem Patienten auf den ersten Blick als Storung erscheint, ermoglicht oft besondere Fahigkeiten der Wahrnehmung.Mit diesem Buch hat Sacks eine von fesselnder Energie getriebene Autobiographie vorgelegt. Ehrlich und anruhrend beschreibt er die wichtigsten Stationen seines Lebens das enge Grobritannien der Nachkriegszeit, das anarchische Kalifornien der fruhen Sechziger, schlielich das ewig pulsierende New York. Ob er in der Forschung tatig ist oder in der klinischen Praxis, konstant bleiben die Begeisterung fur die Arbeit mit den Patienten und das Schreiben daruber.Geruhmt fur seine feinsinnigen Fallgeschichten, analysiert Sacks hier seinen eigenen Fall: Er erzahlt von erfullter und unerfullter Liebe, der Beziehung zu seiner judischen Medizinerfamilie, zeitweiliger Drogensucht und exzessivem Bodybuilding und von unbandigen Glucksgefuhlen auf den Road Trips durch die Weiten Nordamerikas.Die Lebensbilanz eines auergewohnlichen Mediziners und das Meisterwerk eines groartigen Erzahlers.

An impassioned, tender and joyous memoir by the author of Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: 'Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far'. It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, as well as with a group of patients who would define his life, it becomes clear that Sacks's earnest desire for engagement has occasioned unexpected encounters and travels - sending him through bars and alleys, over oceans, and across continents.With unbridled honesty and humour, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions - bodybuilding, weightlifting, and swimming - also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual, his guilt over leaving his family to come to America, his bond with his schizophrenic brother, and the writers and scientists - Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick - who influenced him.On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer - and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.

When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: 'Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far'. It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, as well as with a group of patients who would define his life, it becomes clear that Sacks's earnest desire for engagement has occasioned unexpected encounters and travels - sending him through bars and alleys, over oceans, and across continents