The Island of the Colour-blind
Synopsis
‘Sacks is rightly renowned for his empathy . . . anyone with a taste for the exotic will find this beautifully written book highly engaging’ – The Sunday Times
Journey into the unknown with the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
Always fascinated by islands, neurologist Oliver Sacks is drawn to the Pacific by reports of the tiny atoll of Pingelap, with its isolated community of islanders born totally colour-blind; and to Guam, where he investigates a puzzling paralysis endemic there for a century. Along the way, he re-encounters the beautiful, primitive island cycad trees – and these become the starting point for a meditation on time and evolution, disease and adaptation, and islands both real and metaphorical in The Island of the Colour-Blind.
Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.
Details
Reviews
“This is a wonderful book, made better by Sacks' exceptionally gentle descriptions of patients. He also captures the unimaginable sadness of the Pacific.”The Spectator, The Spectator
“There is no one at the present time who writes like Oliver Sacks . . . [Sacks] writes of disease and disability with profound empathy and impressive erudition. He is a superb clinician who can take a seemingly arid and obscure medical condition, and convert it into a moving, personal odyssey, a testament of tenacity, courage and will”Literary Review, Literary Review
“Sacks is rightly renowned for his empathy . . . anyone with a taste for the exotic will find this beautifully written book highly engaging”The Sunday Times, The Sunday Times
“Sacks's fans are in for a treat: This is a magical medical mystery tour of South Sea islands that goes beyond the neurological lore to reveal the good doctor as historian, botanist, environmentalist, anthropologist, and, as always, caring human being”Kirkus, Kirkus
