Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

CELEBRATING FIFTY YEARS OF PICADOR BOOKS

If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self – himself – he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.

In this extraordinary book, Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder. Here are people who can no longer recognize everyday objects or those they love; who are stricken with violent tics or shout involuntary obscenities, and yet are gifted with unusually acute artistic or mathematical talents. If sometimes beyond our surface comprehension, these brilliant tales illuminate what it means to be human.

A provocative exploration of the mysteries of the human mind, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a million-copy bestseller by the twentieth century's greatest neurologist.

Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.


A gripping journey into the recesses of the human mind ― Daily Mail

Oliver Sacks has become the world's best-known neurologist. His case studies of broken minds offer brilliant insight into the mysteries of consciousness ― Guardian

Populated by a cast as strange as that of the most fantastic fiction . . . Dr Sacks shows the awesome powers of our mind and just how delicately balanced they have to be ― Sunday Times

Dr. Sacks's most absorbing book . . . His tales are so compelling [because] many of them serve as eerie metaphors not only for the condition of modern medicine but of modern man ― New York Magazine

This book is for everybody who has felt from time to time that certain twinge of self-identity and sensed how easily, at any moment, one might lose it ― The Times

A decidedly original approach . . . In addition to possessing the technical skills of a twentieth-century doctor, [Sacks] sees the human condition like a philosopher-poet. The resultant mixture is insightful, compassionate and moving . . . he recounts these histories with the lucidity and power of a gifted short-story writer . . . a masterpiece of clinical writing ― New York Times