Sackss compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our own brains. Here, he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people.

Reviews

"Dr. Sacks writes not just as a doctor and a scientist but also as a humanist with a philosophical and literary bent. . . [his] book not only contributes to our understanding of the elusive magic of music but also illuminates the strange workings, and misfirings, of the human mind."
-Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times"
"Oliver Sacks turns his formidable attention to music and the brain . . . He doesn't stint on the science . . . but the underlying authority of "Musicophilia" lies in the warmth and easy command of the author's voice."
-Mark Coleman, Los Angeles Times
"His work is luminous, original, and indispensable . . . "Musicophilia" is a Chopin mazurka recital of a book, fast, inventive and weirdly beautiful . . . Yet what is most awe-inspiring is his observational empathy."
-"American Scholar"
"Curious, cultured, caring, in his person Sacks justifies the medical profession and, one is tempted to say, the human race . . . Sacks is, in short, the ideal exponent of the view that responsiveness to music is intrinsic to our makeup. He is also the ideal guide to the territory he covers. "Musicophilia" allows readers to join Sacks where he is most alive, amid melodies and with his patients."
-Peter D. Kramer, "The Washington Post
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"Readers will be grateful that Sacks . . . is happy to revel in phenomena that he cannot yet explain."
-"The New York Times Book Review
""The persuasive essays about composers, patients, savants, and ordinary people . . . offer captivating variations on the central premise that human beings are 'exquisitely tuned' to the illuminating yet ultimately mysterious powers of music."
-"Elle"
"With the exception of LewisThomas, no physician has ever written better about his trade."
-"Salon
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"A gifted writer and a neurologist, Sacks spins one fascinating tale after another to show what happens when music and the brain mix it up."
"-Newsweek
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