With his characteristic erudition and compassion, Oliver Sacks, whom the "New York Times" called the "poet laureate of medicine," discovers the space that music occupies in the human brain and the way it affects human behavior. In "Musicophilia," he examines the dynamics of music through individual experiences from patients, musicians, and everyday people.

Among them are: a surgeon who was struck by lightning and became obsessed with Chopin; people with "amusia," for whom a symphony orchestra sounds no different from the clatter of guns; and a man whose memory lasts only seven seconds - for anything other than music.

Dr. Sacks describes how music activates people with Parkinson’s disease, who otherwise cannot speak, and how it leads to calm and focus in people who are deeply disoriented by Alzheimer's or schizophrenia. Music can invoke our highest or deepest emotions - it can even prove to be a medicine. Oliver Sacks explains to us why.

"Sacks unfolds one fascinating story after another, to show us what happens when music and the brain combine." ("Newsweek")

"Sacks has an ideal way of telling stories: knowledgeable yet humble... Literary but not self-righteous." ("Los Angeles Times")

"Brilliant, authentic, and essential... Musicophilia is a book that reminds one of a concert featuring Chopin mazurkas: fast, inspired, and strangely beautiful." ("American Scholar")

"Musicophilia finds Oliver Sacks at his best, weaving neuroscience with a captivating personal narrative, allowing us to think about brain functions and music in a new light." ("Salon")

Best book of the year by the "Washington Post," "Chicago Tribune," and "Financial Times."