The Man Who Wasn't There

Praise for The Man Who Wasn't There "If you simply want to read a great science book, I can't recommend any more highly than this one." -Forbes "An agreeably written travelogue through this mysterious landscape at the frontiers of knowledge." -The Wall Street Journal "You'll never see yourself-or others-the same way again." -People "The gallery of personal, often tender, portraits of patients is impressive and reminiscent of the writings of Oliver Sacks... A skilled science journalist, Ananthaswamy excels at making theoretical concepts and experimental procedures both comprehensible and compelling." -Science "In The Man Who Wasn't There, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy smartly explores the nature of the self by way of several mental conditions that eat away at patients' identities... Following in the steps of Oliver Sacks's "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" (1985) and V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee's "Phantoms in the Brain" (1999), Ananthaswamy uses neuropsychology and narrative to take us inside the heads of people experiencing realities very different from our own." -Washington Post "Anil Ananthaswamy's exploration of the human 'self' is a blazingly original excursion through the brain-as well as a fascinating catalog of bizarre disorders." -Entertainment Weekly "Autobiographies hinging on conditions such as Asperger's syndrome and schizophrenia are proliferating, but there is little to fill the void between such accounts and the scientific literature. Linking experiences with experiments, and individuals with numbers, Ananthaswamy bridges that gap convincingly." -Nature "When you think 'beach read," you probably don't think "neuroscience." But science journalist Ananthaswamy has a knack for making difficult topics accessible to everyone." -Men's Journal "It is an astonishing journey and an ambitious book, bringing together cutting-edge science and philosophy from West and East. You will not be quite the same self after reading it." -New Scientist "An excellent if unnerving book: 'you' turn out to be more fluid than 'you' thought." -New Scientist, CultureLab "A thought-provoking read... Ananthaswamy relays many interesting advances and, at the same time, challenges us to contemplate who we really are." -Scientific American Mind "[The Man Who Wasn't There] illuminates some of the most provocative questions at the boundary of science and philosophy." -Columbus Dispatch "Sophisticated science, sensitive storytelling and Nancy Drew-like curiosity are at the heart of science author and journalist Anil Ananthaswamy's The Man Who Wasn't There." -San Jose Mercury News "Science journalist Ananthaswamy skillfully inspects the bewildering connections among brain, body, mind, self, and society... Readers will be fascinated by Ananthaswamy's chronicles as he explores, with kindness and keen intelligence, the uncomfortable aberrations that reveal what it is to be human." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A provocative examination of deep questions." -Kirkus "If you like Oliver Sacks, you'll love this new work by Ananthaswamy....." -Library Journal "A faint-of-heart hypochondriac might wish to give Ananthaswamy's book a wide berth, but others should find it quite fascinating. From the man who insisted that he was brain dead (despite walking, talking, eating, and taking the bus) to autism, Alzheimer's, something called body integrity identity disorder (read the book), and more, Ananthaswamy demonstrates how what is perceived as the self can wiggle all over the map." -Booklist "Despite the depth of scientific knowledge plumbed in the book, the language is simple and accessible in the tradition of the late, great neuroscientist Oliver Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat). The series

Anil Ananthaswamy is a consultant for the London-based New Scientist magazine, guest editor in science journalism at UC Santa Cruz renowned science writing programme and teaches the science journalism workshop at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India. He has worked at New Scientist in various capacities since 2000, including as staff writer and deputy news editor.He has also written for National Geographic, Discover, The Times and The Independent.