'The story of a disease that plunged its victims into a prison of viscous time, and the drug that catapulted them out of it' Guardian 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 is the extraordinary account of a group of twenty patients. Rendered catatonic by the sleeping-sickness epidemic that swept the world just after the First World War, all twenty had spent forty 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. 'A brilliant and humane book' Observer 'Not only a collection of astonishing case histories, Awakenings is also a memoir, a moral essay and a romance. It is a work of genius' Washington Post

奥利弗?萨克斯

杰出的神经病学专家、闻名全球的畅销书作家。

毕业于牛津大学皇后学院，目前为哥伦比亚大学临床神经科教授。他的第一本书《睡人》一出版，便受到读者热捧，之后立刻被拍成风靡全球的电影。其后，他陆续出版了《觉醒》、《单脚站立》、《错把妻子当帽子》、《火星上的人类学家》、《脑袋里装了2000出歌剧的人》、《钨舅舅——少年萨克斯的化学爱恋》、《色盲岛》等书，被翻译成近30种语言，畅销全球，在全世界掀起狂热的“萨克斯飓风”。

萨克斯的书因独特新颖的视角、惊世骇俗的观念、曲折离奇的故事，以及深刻的人文关怀与感人至深的力量，屡屡被改编成电影和歌剧，风靡全世界。

因其在文学和科学研究上的杰出贡献，萨克斯荣膺霍桑登奖、乔治?波克奖，以及专门授予科学作家的刘易斯?托马斯奖，也是古根汉学术奖获得者，还被英国女王授予高级骑士勋章。