Musicophilia

Tales of Music and the Brain
by Oliver Sacks

In bestselling books like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks’s compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have changed the way we think about our own brains, and about the human experience. In his new book, he examines the extraordinary powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people—from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of forty-two, to an entire group of children with Williams syndrome who are hypermusical from birth.

“[Sacks’s] 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

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