Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum - Softcover

Francis, Gavin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465096824 ISBN 13: 9780465096824

Publisher: Basic Books, 2016

Synopsis

"Adventures in Human Being, with its deft mix of the clinical and the lyrical, is a triumph of the eloquent brain and the compassionate heart."--Wall Street Journal
We assume we know our bodies intimately, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory, an enigma of bone and muscle, neurons and synapses. How many of us understand the way seizures affect the brain, how the heart is connected to well-being, or the why the foot holds the key to our humanity? In Adventures in Human Being, award-winning author Gavin Francis leads readers on a journey into the human body, offering a guide to its inner workings and a celebration of its marvels. Drawing on his experiences as a surgeon, ER specialist, and family physician, Francis blends stories from the clinic with episodes from medical history, philosophy, and literature to describe the body in sickness and in health, in living and in dying. At its heart, Adventures in Human Being is a meditation on what it means to be human. Poetic, eloquent, and profoundly perceptive, this book will transform the way you view your body.

About this title

About the Author

Gavin Francis is a physician and the author of True North: Travels in Arctic Europe and Empire Antarctica: Ice, Silence and Emperor Penguins, which won the Scottish Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and the Costa Prize, and was named a best book of the year by The Economist and the Financial Times. A regular contributor to the London Review of Books, the Guardian, and the New York Review of Books, Francis lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Review

The Independent (UK) -- Best Summer Reads2015 Saltire Literary Award -- Non-Fiction Book of the Year

"Delightful."―Economist

"Engaging and edifying."―New York Review of Books

"A sober and beautiful book about the landscape of the human body."―Hilary Mantel

"It is grand, eloquent stuff, occasionally humorous, frequently moving, and invariably informative. In other hands, Adventures in Human Being might well have become cluttered with cliché, detail or sentimentality but Francis has a lightness of touch that helps him avoid these pitfalls. His use of quotes is sparing but erudite and his lack of self-importance--often a failing in his profession--is welcome. The end result is a thoroughly entertaining, provocative work."―The Guardian

"That Adventures in Human Being is an astonishing, moving and enchanting book can be explained in part by Francis's unique range of experience, his erudition and his enthusiasm."―New Statesman

"[Francis] offers an unusually upbeat medical perspective.... His essays form a kind of anatomical atlas in which Francis proceeds from head to toe, stopping along the way to explore the lungs, genitalia, liver, and other organs."―Boston Globe

"[A] brilliantly original and highly engaging book that takes you on a journey that is both familiar and unfamiliar, a book that marries both the physical and metaphysical with such imaginative wit and eloquence."―The Independent (UK)

"Clever, strangely beautiful.... The style is crisp and fast and the human tales irresistible."―The Times (London)

"[Francis] is a fine, subtle and observant writer... this is an illuminating and arresting book."―Herald Scotland

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0465096824
• ISBN 13: 9780465096824
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272