Into The Silent Land

The unforgettable debut work of the Oliver Sacks for the twenty-first century and a staggering new additional to psychological writing:

'Behind every face there is a person. The illusion is irresistible. We see the signal of consciousness in a gleaming eye and imagine some ethereal space beyond, somewhere beneath the vault of the skull, lit by shifting patterns of feeling and thought, charged with intention. Some kind of essence; a person. But what do we find in that space behind the face, when we look? The brute fact is there is nothing but material substance: flesh and blood and bone and brain. I know, I've seen. You look down into an open head, watching the brain pulsate, watching the surgeon tug and probe, and you understand with absolute conviction that there is no more to it. There's no one there. It's a liberation of sorts.'

Into the Silent Land marks the debut of an astonishing new voice. Paul Broks draws on his many years as a neuropsychologist to present an unforgettable narrative about memory and personal identity. Macabre yet humane, unsettling but always affecting, Broks writes about the experiences of his patients, and his experiences as their doctor, with sensitivity and candour. Their stories are those of ordinary people whose extraordinary illnesses have much to say to everyone about who and what we are. They are also about chance, compassion, human fallibility and eccentricity.