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Awakenings

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Awakenings

By: Oliver Sacks
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Oliver Sacks
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About this listen

Hailed as a medical classic, and the subject of a major feature film as well as radio and stage plays and various TV documentaries, Awakenings by Oliver Sacks is the extraordinary account of a group of 20 patients.

Rendered catatonic by the sleeping-sickness epidemic that swept the world just after the First World War, all 20 had spent 40 years in hospital - motionless and speechless; aware of the world around them but exhibiting no interest in it - until Dr Sacks administered the then-new drug L-DOPA, which caused them, temporarily, to awake from their decades-long slumber.

©1973 Oliver Sacks (P)2011 Audible, Inc
Brain & Nervous System Essays Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Mental Health

Critic Reviews

"The story of a disease that plunged its victims into a prison of viscous time, and the drug that catapulted them out of it." (The Guardian)

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a fascinating story

incredible case studies of human disease, hopefully never to be seen again. the descriptions may be too technical for the lay listener, but the broader picture is beautifully told

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