Considered one of the great clinical writers of the century, Oliver Sacks presents us in this book seven neurological cases that constitute a profound reflection on the essence of identity and the mechanisms of knowledge.

A painter who, after a car accident, stops seeing color; a surgeon whose constant tics and seizures only subside when he operates or flies his airplane; a man who after a lifetime of blindness regains his sight only to realize that he does not know how to see; an autistic teacher capable only of treating and understanding animals, and who is so perplexed by the complexity of human emotions that she feels like "an anthropologist on Mars": these are some of these "paradoxical stories" that present us with an of existence that would be impossible for us to know without that anomaly called illness.

The thesis that the author maintains is that it is not so much about "curing" the disease - since some of those that appear here, such as autism, Tourette syndrome, achromatopsia, do not admit the concept of cure - but about learning to live with it, despite how grotesque some symptoms may be, how different the patient may feel from the so-called normal ones.

In these seven parables about the mutability of the human condition, Sacks once again demonstrates his exceptional talent as a narrator, his vast culture, and his ability to make these initially bizarre characters end up seeming familiar and normal.

«A fascinating book» (Rosa Montero).

«A double and complementary version of Sacks's personality: the popularizer facet of him, of reporter of the cerebral mystery, and the clinician facet of him. That tells the general public what it justifies to specialists" (José Antonio Marina).