Musicophilia

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What to expect

With an introduction by neuroscientist Daniel Glaser.

With his trademark compassion and erudition, Dr Oliver Sacks examines the power of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people. Among them: a surgeon who is struck by lightning and suddenly becomes obsessed with Chopin; people with ‘amusia’, to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of poets and pans; and a man whose memory spans only seven seconds – for everything but music. Dr Sacks describes how music can animate people with Parkinson’s disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people who are deeply disoriented by Alzheimer’s or schizophrenia.

Musicophilia alters our conception of who we are and how we function, and shows us an essential part of what it is to be human.

Critics Review

  • 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

  • An elegantly outlined series of case studies . . . which reveal the depth to which music grips so many people.

    Observer

  • 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. This book is filled with wonders

    Daily Telegraph

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