In this gripping memoir, one of Britain's top neurosurgeons reveals what it is to play god in the face of the life-and-death decisions he encounters daily. The stories give us a rare insight into the intense drama of the operating theatre, the chaos and confusion of a modern hospital, the exquisite complexity of the human brain - and the blunt instrument that is surgeon's knife in comparison. But above all this is a book about the moving personal...

Joshua Bederson is the chief of Neurosurgery at the esteemed Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. New Yorker writer John Colapinto brings to vivid life what Dr. Bederson's professional life is like to show all the varied facets of his work, from extensive study and research to brain operations, one-on-one consultations with patients, and even staff meetings with fellow surgeons and students. Since Mt. Sinai is a teaching hospital, we learn alongside...

A perfect blend of medical drama and spiritual insight, Gray Matter is a fascinating account of Dr. David Levy's decision to begin asking his patients if he could pray for them before surgery. Some are thrilled. Some are skeptical. Some are hostile, and some are quite literally transformed by the request. Each chapter focuses on a specific case, opening with a detailed description of the patient's diagnosis and the procedure that will need to be performed,...

In this medical memoir, Dr. Friedman recounts the humorous, tragic, and always intense relationships of neurosurgeons to their colleagues and patients. He details what it takes to become a leading neurosurgeon and deal with deadly brain diseases and their devastating complications. He discusses topics such as universal health care, how the mind works, why trigeminal neuralgia is called the “suicide disease,” and how we will ultimately cure cancer...

What is it like to have God-like surgical powers, yet to struggle against your own humanity? What is it like to try and save a life, and yet to fail? British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh openly confronts the dilemmas of the doctor patient relationship on his latest mission to the Ukraine.