The Unseen Body

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