The Unseen Body

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What to expect

In his beautifully written prose, Dr Jonathan Reisman - physician, adventure traveller and naturalist - allows listeners to navigate their insides like an explorer discovering a new world.

Through his offbeat adventures in healthcare and travel, Reisman discovers new perspectives on the body: a trip to the Alaskan Arctic reveals that fat is not the enemy, but the hero; a stint in the Himalayas uncovers the boundary where the brain ends and the mind begins; and eating a sheep's head in Iceland offers a lesson in empathy. By relating his experiences in far-flung lands and among unique cultures back to the body's inner workings, he shows how our organs live inextricably intertwined lives in an internal ecosystem that reflects the natural world around us.

Reisman's unique perspective on the natural world and his expert wielding of wit ultimately helps us make sense of our lives, our bodies and our world in a way readers have never before imagined.

'An elegant, elegiac, and deeply enjoyable meander through human anatomy . . . the images Reisman conjures will linger long after you've devoured his delightful prose.' - Nicola Twilley, co-author of Until Proven Safe and co-host of Gastropod podcast

(P) 2021 Macmillan Audio

Critics Review

A fascinating, lyrical book . . . Reisman's experiences in other cultures bring a richness and depth to The Unseen Body. The way he thinks about the body and medicine - the rivers and tributaries, the flowing and unclogging, the top-down organisation of the brain - is extraordinary!
Mary Roach, author of STIFF
A magnificent travelogue through the human body by a truly intrepid explorer. A genuine 'must' for anyone who is even remotely curious about their own body and how it works. I really loved it.
Professor Sue Black, author of WRITTEN IN BONE and ALL THAT REMAINS
An intelligent, innovative, eclectic and accessible book in which Reisman views the human body with a remarkable degree of lateral thinking. Sometimes funny, often gruesome but always entertaining and educational.
Samer Nashef, author of THE ANGINA MONOLOGUES
The author's literary approach to this complicated subject proved excellent bedside material. [Reisman] comes across as a generous and thoughtful physician . . . [who can] make sense out of it all.
Wall Street Journal
If you are fascinated by the human body and how it works, or you are thinking about studying medicine, or you are just a curious person you will find this book a joy to read . . . This is a great and easy read which I heartily (excuse the pun) recommend.
Professor Alex Rodgers, author of THE DEEP
Terrific, memorable, original, and full of information that informs one's understanding not only of the body but what has stopped us from knowing more. There is palpable joy at learning in Reisman's writing and readers will know him as an individual whose humility and empathy are as impressive as his adventurous, travel-hungry spirit.
Kenneth S. Brecher, cultural anthropologist and author of TOO SAD TO SING
Through his acute and extensive observations of the seen world of nature and human nature, Reisman illuminates the analogous workings of our unseen bodies. An Alexander von Humboldt of the human body, Dr. Reisman's comparisons give us an ingenious perspective from which to understand the ways in which our internal organs function alone and together. I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in understanding and appreciating the marvels of the human body.
Warren Zapol. M.D., professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School, Antarctic researcher, and inventor
THE UNSEEN BODY is an elegant, elegiac, and deeply enjoyable meander through human anatomy, by way of brain-tanned buckskin, blood as the last salty remnant of life's oceanic origins, and the World Testicle Cooking Championships. The images Reisman conjures will linger long after you've devoured his delightful prose.
Nicola Twilley, co-author of UNTIL PROVEN SAFE and co-host of GASTROPOD podcast
A remarkable travel narrative that documents the author's trip through a seemingly familiar place, the human body, and with a blend of science and personal experience renders that place both strange and fascinating, so much so that the reader will feel not only delighted, but also proud to be a lifelong inhabitant of it.
Lawrence Millman, award-winning author of FUNGIPEDIA
Quirky, never-dull popular science
Kirkus Reviews
An engaging book likely to pique the curiosity of readers interested in a wide range of medical conditions or naturalistic medicine
Library Journal
Dr Reisman engagingly relates provocative stories for the fifteen body parts uncovered in this treatise, and goads the reader to re-evaluate their perception of the body
City Book Review
Physician and naturalist Reisman offers a 'behind-the-scenes look at life itself' via an odyssey through the human body . . . deep curiosity driv[es] his narrative
Publishers Weekly

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