Awakenings: Oliver Sacks

This is an extraordinary account of a group of 20 patients, survivors of the great sleeping-sickness epidemic which swept the world in the 1920s, and the astonishing, explosive "awakening" effect they experienced 40 years later through a new drug, L-DOPA, administered by Dr Sacks. The stories he tells of these remarkable individuals are moving, often courageous and sometimes tragic. Now hailed as a medical classic, Awakenings was first published in 1973 and won the Hawthornden Prize of that year. It has since inspired a TV documentary, radio and stage plays and a major feature film. Revised 1990 edition.